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OHN MACKENZIE 

SOUTH AFRICAN MISSIONARY AND 
STATESMAN. -^ BY W^" DOUGLAS 

MACKENZIE, M.A. PROFESSOR of 

SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY IN THE 
CHICAGO THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 7^ 



NEW YORK 
A. C. ARMSTRONG & SON, 3 & 5 WEST 18TH STREET 

LONDON ; HODDER & STOUGHTON 

1902 






^y Iransfer 

D, C. Public Library 

FEB 1 3 1541 



Yi- 



■Af ^ 




THE DIRECTORS AND OFFICERS 

OF THE 

LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY 

WHO SHOWED SO WISE A SYMPATHY 

FOR HIM IN HIS MOST 

BURDENED YEARS 

THIS BIOGRAPHY 



OF ONE WHO REGARDED THEM 
WITH A MOST LOYAL LOVE 

IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED 



PREFACE 

Many dangers confront the son who writes the 
biography of his father. It is easy to err in every 
direction, now by withholding what the reader ought 
to know if the biography is to be written at all, and 
again, by touching on aspects of character and life 
which the sensitive stranger shrinks from gazing upon 
too closely. In the following pages I have tried to be 
natural ; neither to hide nor to obtrude admiration 
for my father's character ; neither to suppress nor to 
defend sympathy with most of his political doctrines. 
Nor has it been thought best to avoid all reference to 
those tender and sacred sides of his personality, which 
it may be hard to describe fittingly, but without which 
no life, and therefore no life's record, can either have 
or convey any real grace and inspiration. 

The task of compression has been found perplexing. 
Since the manuscript was completed many incidents 
and documents continue to thrust themselves forward, 
reproachfully asking why they were omitted. And 
no good reason can be given, except the general one, 
which appeases no particular complainant, that it had 
been resolved to make the biography brief at all 
costs. It would have been much easier to make it 
much longer. 

A word or two must be said on the political side of 



vi PREFACE 

my father's lifework. He was drawn into it gradually, 
irresistibly, for the sake of his mission work. His 
was the kind of nature which cannot think of religion 
and religious work, except in relation to the whole 
round of human interests and activities. For such 
men, it is hard, nay impossible, to see the Kingdom of 
God suffering from the very forces which it ought to 
control, without loud protest and active resistance. It 
has been no pleasant task to study closely the records 
of my father's efforts to persuade the British Govern- 
ment, between the years 1882 and 1891, to adopt 
a South African policy which would have prevented 
the horrors of this great war. He failed, not for lack 
of earnest and powerful supporters of his policy 
throughout the country, but because the Government 
was persuaded to adopt a form of Imperialism which 
may not, for long years to come, be applicable in 
South Africa — however excellent its results may have 
been in Canada and Australasia. 

The Confederation of South Africa is a dream 
which Lord Carnarvon tried to hurry in one direction, 
with disaster to Sir Bartle Frere. It is a dream which 
the Africander Bond has tried to hurry in another 
direction, with disaster to the two Republics. The 
difficulty of confederation in South Africa lies ulti- 
mately, not in the mere rivalry of the two European 
races, but in the existence of the great and ever 
growing native population. I believe that the deepest 
and wisest words on that difficulty and on the way to 
meet it are to be found in my father's writings ; and 



PREFACE vii 

I trust that readers of the biography may obtain 
enough light upon it to wish for more. Unhappy the 
Government that tries to solve the permanently por- 
tentous problem of South Africa, while treating the 
native aspect of that problem, incidentally or super- 
ficially ! It has always been and is very close to the 
heart of the whole matter, a responsibility that has 
already worked its own terrific revenges, a challenge to 
the nobleness of Great Britain that no mockery can 
ever silence. 

It remains to record my gratitude to various kind 
helpers in this undertaking. My father's dear and 
long tried friends the Rev. James Ross of Glasgow, 
Mr Charles G. Oates of Meanwoodside, Leeds, and 
Mr Henry Beard of Cape Town, furnished me with 
letters from my father, and with valuable memoranda 
of their own. Principal A. W. W. Dale, of University 
College, Liverpool, sent a bundle of letters addressed 
to his father, the late Dr R. W. Dale of Birmingham, 
and Mr W. T. Stead let me have a number of equally 
important letters addressed to himself. The Right 
Honourable Lord Knutsford sent several letters of the 
year 1891, with an explanatory note of his own ; and 
Mr Arthur H. Loring who, with Mr H. O. Arnold 
Forster, worked most faithfully for the South African 
Committee, when that Committee laboured to promote 
my father's views, gave me useful information and 
some documents. Lieut. -General Sir Charles Warren, 
K.C.M.G., took much interest in the proposed memorial 
of his old friend and fellow-worker, but was prevented 



viii PREFACE 

by his appointment to active service from carrying out 
his intention of rendering further aid. I have also to 
thank the Rev. R. Wardlaw Thompson, Foreign 
Secretary of the London Missionary Society, and the 
Directors, for permission to search the files of their 
South African Correspondence. 

It is perhaps right to add that the appearance of 
this book has been delayed by two illnesses, which 
overtook the author at periods when he had expected 
comparative freedom from other duties. 

Much and special gratitude is due to the Rev. 
James Ross of Glasgow, for undertaking the task of 
reading the proof sheets. W. D. M. 



CONTENTS 



FAOE 

Preface . . . . . . • v 



CHAPTER I 
From Knockando to Bedford (1835-1855) . . i 

CHAPTER II 
From Bedford to Cape Town (1855-1858) . . 21 

CHAPTER III 

"Wanderjahre" (1858- 1 864) , . . .42 

CHAPTER IV 
The First Period at Shoshong (1864-1871) . .96 

CHAPTER V 
The Second Period at Shoshong (1871-1876) . 133 

ix 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER VI 



'By-Products' of a Missionary's Career (1871- 

1876) . . . . . . .160 



CHAPTER VII 
The Moffat Institution (187 i -1882) . . .179 

CHAPTER VIII 
KuRUMAN— An Unpaid Administrator (1877- 1879) • 204 

CHAPTER IX 
KuRUMAN— John Mackenzie's Choice (1879-1882) . 227 

CHAPTER X 

England— The Missionary as Political Educator 

(1882, 1883) . . . . . . 257 

CHAPTER XI 

England— The Transvaal Delegates and the 

London Convention (1883, 1884) . . . 278 



CONTENTS xi 



CHAPTER XII 

PAGE 

Africa— John Mackenzie as Deputy Commissioner 

(1884) 310 



CHAPTER XIII 

Africa— The Rousing of the Cape Colony (1884, 

1885) 352 



CHAPTER XIV 
Africa— The Warren Expedition (1885) . . 374 

CHAPTER XV 
England— " Baffled to Fight Better" (1885-1887) . 395 

CHAPTER XVI 
England— The Rejection of a Prophet (1888, 1889) 416 

CHAPTER XVII 
England— The Saving of Bechuanaland (1890, 1891) 439 

CHAPTER XVIII 
Africa— Manysided Work at Hankey (1891-1898) . 469 



xii CONTENTS 



CHAPTER XIX 



1 



PAGE 

Africa — Last Contributions to Imperial Politics 



(1895.1898) . . ; . . .494 



CHAPTER XX 

Africa — Preacher and Counsellor (1891-1898) . 516 

CHAPTER XXI 

The Ripened Life and the Sickle (1898, 1899) . 531 

Appendix ....... 549 

Index ........ 553 



•I 



CHAPTER I 

FROM KNOCKANDO TO BEDFORD (l 83 5-I 85 5) 

In the remote valley of Knockando, in Morayshire, a 
certain family of Mackenzies was to be found far from 
the true home of their clan in Ross-shire. Their presence 
there seems to have been accounted for by supposing 
that an unknown ancestor had found it necessary to 
flee into hiding after one of the several futile rebellions 
of the 1 8th century. Knockando is a bleak district 
lying behind a low range of hills on the left bank of 
the river Spey ; which used to be described in the 
school geographies as " the swiftest river in Scotland." 

Throughout life this " solemn rolling Spey," as he 
called it, was ever mentioned by Mackenzie with a 
certain tenderness of personal affection. The scenery 
of the river valley for some miles up and down is 
peculiarly beautiful, and at several points, as at 
Craigellachie, it even reaches a certain grandeur. It 
is easy to see how the music of the rushing waters, 
the broad and deep pools where it flows in silent 
stretches under the gloom of overhanging crags, must 
have left indelible and romantic impressions upon the 
mind of a sensitive young Celt. Long years after- 
wards he wrote out of the desert heart of South 
Africa to his eldest son, who was about to spend a 
holiday season in Morayshire : " Tell me if you heard 
again the noise of the Spey ; the one solemn sound in 
the still and lovely summer evening. It is worth 
hearing ; and you will never need to try to remember 
it." 

The soil of Knockando indeed is bare and un- 



2 JOHN MACKENZIE 

generous ; but its scattered little farms have been the 
homes of warm hearts. In one of these humble 
homes John Mackenzie, the youngest of six children, 
was born on August 30th, 1835 ; and there he lived 
till he was nine years of age. 

The only record of his earliest years which he has 
preserved is brief and reads thus : — 

" The first verse and prayer which my mother 
taught me was as follows : — 

" This nicht whan I lie down tae sleep 
I gie my soul tae Christ tae keep. 
An' wauk' I noo, an' wauk' I never 
I gie my soul tae Christ forever." 

His parents were unable to give him more than the 
primary education of the parish school ; but circum- 
stances made it possible for the little lad to be received 
into the Anderson Institution in the beautiful and 
ancient city of Elgin. Thither he went in his tenth 
year, making the whole journey of sixteen miles, which 
he was to repeat so often in the next few years, on 
foot. The Anderson Institution was founded and 
endowed by a General Anderson, whose life-story had 
been from beginning to end of strangely mingled pathos 
and brilliance. The purpose of the Institution was 
said to be " the support of old age and the education 
of youth." When John Mackenzie entered the school 
its head master was one John Eddie, a licentiate of the 
Church of Scotland, a man of some learning and a 
most kind heart ; of great patience and carefulness as 
a teacher. Intelligent pupils received a very thorough 
foundation under his tuition. His school did not aim 
at keeping children beyond the age, about thirteen or 
fourteen years, when they could become apprenticed 
to some trade ; but it followed them right through 
their apprenticeship with substantial aid and almost 
parental interest. For Mr Eddie, Mackenzie felt a 
life-long gratitude and affection, named his second son 



FROM KNOCKANDO TO BEDFORD 3 

after him, and sought in various ways to maintain 
a friendly connection with him until he died in 
the year 1887, at the age of eighty-seven. And 
Mackenzie appears, on the other hand, to have excited 
the special interest of his master, who followed his 
career, even in the days of his apprenticeship, with an 
attentive sympathy. 

On October 23rd, 1848, the young boy left the 
school which had become almost a home to him, and 
was apprenticed to Mr Alexander Russell, the pro- 
prietor and printer, editor and publisher of the local 
newspaper named The Elgin Courant. The " inden- 
ture " bound him to serve this master faithfully and 
diligently for seven long years, during which the 
master was bound " to teach him or cause him to be 
taught " every branch of the printing trade. The 
hours were irregular but seem to have averaged ten 
hours a day, and at times late work had to be done on 
the newspaper. Leisure could be therefore found for 
reading and study only by those who had strong 
inclinations in that direction. 

Although so young, John Mackenzie had to live in 
lodgings, virtually master of his own time and habits 
at fourteen years of age ! How significant and 
pathetic are the words which he wrote in his diary at 
a certain crisis when he was almost twenty years of 
age : " It is now ten years since I have asked parental 
advice. During that period, when not under the eye 
of a teacher or of an employer, I have been entirely 
my own adviser, and my own master. Instead of 
giving, both parents ask advice from me, so that I am 
not acting in any way undutifully towards my parents, 
but simply in that way which circumstances at first 
produced, which after events continued, which our 
different dispositions and feelings fostered, and which is 
now acted as duty by me, and expected by them." 
At first he appears to have lived the happy life of a 



4 JOHN MACKENZIE 

■• 

boy, without great or strenuous self-exertion. He was 
not particularly fond of reading, as yet, but threw him- 
self heartily into boyish fun and games. He used to 
recall in later years the fact that he played cricket on 
Elgin Green, the game which he liked most. One 
remembers a scene in South Central Africa when some 
English travellers met at a mission station and a game 
at cricket was improvised out of primitive materials, 
and Mackenzie was one of the most eager and happy 
players. 

For several years, as he afterwards stated at his 
ordination,' he found himself surrounded by the 
thoughtless, the foolish, and the vicious, and his 
religious feelings were stifled. He gave up going to 
church, never opened his Bible, and only read " silly or 
sinful publications." His intellectual life was suddenly 
and effectually awakened by an incident which he 
owed to the influence of his younger fellow apprentice, 
James Ross (now the Rev. James Ross of Eglinton 
Street Congregational Church, Glasgow), the dear 
friend with whom he maintained affectionate corre- 
spondence for the rest of his life. This friend had 
been led to join the Bishopmill Literary Association, 
which met in a hired room in the village of Bishopmill, 
across the river Lossie. Mackenzie was amazed to 
see young men and younger lads, most of whom he 
knew, discussing a matter of intellectual interest with 
intense earnestness and freedom. It was a new and 
fascinating world. He himself became quickly 
absorbed in the subject of debate and in the argu- 
ments offered on each side ; so absorbed indeed that 
before the meeting closed he had found himself on his 
own feet and delivered his first public speech ! 

The rousing of the intellectual life led gradually 
to that religious quickening from which his whole 
character ever after drew its most distinctive qualities. 
Although brought up as a son of the Church of Scot- 



I 



FROM KNOCKANDO TO BEDFORD 5 

land, Mackenzie was led, mainly by his intimacy with 
James Ross, to attend what was called the Independent 
Chapel, to which Ross's family belonged. The aged 
minister, Rev. Niel M'Niel, was now unequal to pulpit 
work, but took much interest in several branches of 
pastoral duty. There came to preach one summer, 
1853, a student from the Theological Academy of the 
Congregational Churches of Scotland, by name Alex- 
ander Williamson, afterwards so widely known as a 
missionary in China. This young man, tall and 
powerful of build, forceful in manner and speech, 
was aflame with religious zeal and, above all, with 
enthusiasm for that missionary career to which he had 
dedicated his life. He exercised upon Mackenzie an 
influence of peculiar strength. In his personal jottings 
in June, 1854, the latter says, "I could not tell the 
exact time either of my conversion or of my first 
desiring to become a minister." But he also says that 
both events had happened, the one about a year and 
the other more than a year before. This would 
indicate that it was under the summer ministry of 
Alexander Williamson that the full light broke upon 
his young soul, and then that he made the inward 
resolution, from which there was henceforth no swerv- 
ing, to become a preacher of the gospel in the heathen 
world. 

Somewhere in this early period of his spiritual 
history Mackenzie began to write a diary. The 
earliest portion which has been preserved is not the 
first. It is dated "1854, May 19, Friday." The 
heading is, "Jottings of My Life — Continued." With 
some intermissions, this habit of writing almost daily 
memoranda and meditations was maintained until the 
first voyage to Cape Town was ended. These jottings 
were entered almost always on little boardless booklets, 
evidently made by the writer himself from sheets of 
unruled paper, folded and stitched together. In them 



6 JOHN MACKENZIE 

the young man pours out his soul day by day with 
the utmost simplicity and with an earnestness amount- 
ing sometimes to real passion. If it be remembered 
that the extracts which are given from that diary were 
begun by a young lad yet in his 'teens, who had left 
school at thirteen to fight his life's battles without the 
shelter and comfort of home life, they will most pro- 
bably strike every reader as indicating the possession 
of unusual powers, as well as of a full measure of that 
divine grace which we sometimes call religious genius. 
On June 5th, 1854, .he sat down for the first 
" communion season." It was the custom at Elgin, 
as, happily, in many Congregational Churches in 
Scotland, to celebrate the Lord's Supper every Sunday 
morning, at the close of the ordinary public service. 
Thus did he express the feelings which that solemn 
event stirred in his heart : — 

June 4, 1854 — Morning, — How sweet is the Sabbath 
morn, how calm, how placid, how solemn ! To the believer 
the Sabbath is a day of delight and holy pleasure. It is the 
Lord's day — that day on which Jesus burst the gates of the 
tomb and rose triumphant. It is the day on which the 
apostles and first believers came together to " break bread " 
— to do so in rememibrance of Jesus. Oh, how pleasing the 
day and its associations and duties ! I look forward this day 
that I shall, by God's great mercy and grace, be enabled to 
observe this Lord's day as did the Christians of old. At the 
table of the Lord I, by His grace, will be a guest ; and, oh ! 
grant. Lord, that I may go there with, and while I am there 
may I feel, true love to Jesus ; and may the remembrance of 
His atonement. His death for me and for sinners every- 
where, come to my soul at that table with peculiar force ! 
Oh, how sweet a thing is Christianity, with its trust in Jesus, 
its love to Him and to our fellow-Christians ! The world 
knoweth it not, and yet this happiness is but imperfect here, 
although it shall be perfect yonder ! 

Afternooji. — By the grace of God, I have been a guest 
at His table, and have done according to His commands and 
in remembrance of Him, and I don't think I ever felt so 
happy on earth. Oh, the nearness of such a place to God ! 



FROM KNOCKANDO TO BEDFORD 7 

How solemn it therefore is ! God is near us always, but in 
the associations and circumstances of this holy ordinance our 
weak faith is made sufficient to perceive and to discern Him 
with greater vividness and clearness. I will always, I think, 
remember the peculiar feeling I possessed. It was one of 
rest, repose, and peace created by sweet leaning on Jesus. 
Satan was busy, however, as he always is, to prevent me from 
either enjoying or realising my position ; but grace prevailed, 
and I was enabled to overcome, to a certain extent, at any 
rate. 

It is characteristic of Mackenzie's life-long interest 
in organisation, in the way of doing things, that on 
this very day he makes the following remarks upon 
the conduct of a business meeting of the members of 
the Church, which he that day attended for the first 
time. 

Both resolutions, after deliberation, were agreed to, and 
the meeting was a harmonious one. But I think I could 
suggest improvements in the management of this Church, 
instead of being so much benefited by surveying its working. 
The Church has no secretary or clerk, and I am told their 
business meetings are sometimes without a preses or chair- 
man. It was not so, however, in the meeting to-day. I 
have unshaken belief in the simplicity and the divinity of the 
system, although its working here, as far as I have seen and 
heard of it, has not gone altogether to foster this notion. 

The daily " jottings " are at this earlier period much 
occupied with the obstacles which seemed to lie between 
him and the mission field. The chief difficulty arose 
from the determination which he had formed to go at 
once to some school of training for the ministry. In 
order to do that he must obtain permission from 
Alexander Russell, " my master " as he always calls 
him, to break his apprenticeship. And there lay the 
occasion of many troubled days. Further, his friends 
were divided in their counsel as to whether he should 
apply at once to the London Missionary Society and 
attend their training school at Bedford, or first go 
through the course of the " Glasgow Theological 



8 JOHN MACKENZIE 

Academy " (later known as the Congregational Theo- 
logical Hall). Now, any form of advice which seemed 
to hasten his arrival on the mission field was for that 
very reason preferred by Mackenzie. The motto 
which he at this period chose for himself is referred 
to in a most interesting letter written to James Ross 
after he had begun his studies at Bedford. 

For many months previous to my leaving the Courant 
office, my daily, almost hourly^ breathing to God was, " Make 
my feet like hinds' feet : make me to walk in mine high 
places."^ The burden of this is, compress, as it were, mine 
experience : teach me 7nuch in a short time : and deliver me 
from, yea make me triumph over mine enemies. 

It was in this spirit of intense eagerness that he 
entered into correspondence with the London Mission- 
ary Society, believing that if the Directors were to 
accept his application all other difficulties would 
speedily disappear. At the same time he went on 
with his studies in his leisure hours, though he con- 
fesses several times that his correspondence and 
anxieties occasionally made Latin rudiments uncon- 
genial and close study impossible. Throughout the 
uncertainties of those months he kept his own counsel, 
pouring out his fullest confidences and the reflection 
of his daily thoughts and various emotions, in the 
pages of his diary — and, as those pages abundantly 
prove, in frequent and prolonged prayer. Once a 
week he met several other young men at the house of 
a companion named James Mackintosh, who died two or 
three years later, for prayer : and his diary frequently 
refers gratefully to this intimate communion of friends. 
Once a week also he had a special season of private 
prayer for the spread of the kingdom of God, in 
which his daily pleadings were elaborated. 

It was in June, 1854, that after considerable hesita- 
tion, caused by the divergent opinions of the friends 

^ Ilabakkuk iii. 19, 



FROM KNOCKANDO TO BEDFORD 9 

whom he consulted, Mackenzie applied directly to the 
London Missionary Society for appointment as one 
of its agents in the foreign field. Of course, it was 
understood that if they accepted him he would have 
to spend some time in preparative study. Unfortun- 
ately for his peace of mind no answer to his applica- 
tion was received until October 6th, and then it was 
declined. The reasons given by the Society's Direc- 
tors was that he was too young, alike in years and as 
a member of the Christian Church : it was also felt 
that he must carry his education further ere he could 
be accepted. At the same time he was encouraged 
to renew his application nine or twelve months later. 
The disappointment was met with courage and un- 
abated hope. 

About this time Mackenzie, who had a good singing 
voice, received, after the usual public competition, the 
appointment of precentor at the Parish Church of 
New Spynie, on a salary of ;^5 per annum. From Dr 
Kyd, the minister, he received much kindness and 
encouragement. Long years after he used to recall 
with intense amusement the dread day of his trial 
singing, and how the friend who coached him got him 
into a field behind a hedge on their way to church for 
one more rehearsal. The following paragraph occurs 
in a letter to his boys written more than twenty years 
afterwards :• — 

The five pounds per annum which I earned as precentor of 
New Spynie Parish Church were of very great service to me 
at that particular time of my life. My income was on one 
occasion almost too much for me; I shall explain how. Dr 
Kyd and I had always a grand counting of the pennies and 
bawbees which were put into the brod^ and out of which my 
salary was paid, whenever the happy day came round for me 
to receive my money. This was scene the first. The second 
is a moving one, in which you behold the youthful precentor 
toiling along through the beautiful fir-wood, and through 
Bishopmill too, and up the Lossie Wynd, sadly oppressed 



lo JOHN MACKENZIE 

with his burden of bawbees and pennies, which the laddie 
carried in a handkerchief twisted at the corners. Frequently 
changing hands he reached Winchester, the grocer's, where 
he very readily got " small change" for his copper. But on 
one occasion the second scene was not the last. He had 
rounded the corner into High Street, had descended the one 
step into Winchester's shop, when the material of the hand- 
kerchief could hold out, or rather hold in, no longer, and 
away w^ent the offerings of the decent people of New Spynie 
all over the grocer's shop floor ! It was inside and not out- 
side the shop — which made a great difference in Elgin, and 
no doubt would do so anywhere. 

The following extracts from his Diary for the 
month of September, 1854, while he was waiting for 
the answer of the Directors, will probably do much to 
reveal the spirit of this young man, as he tried to 
walk with God. 

Sept. 6. — O that I were removed from my present secular 
and, in my circumstances, useless employment, and employed 
busily in the preparations necessary to my carrying the 
Gospel far, far away to those who have never heard it. 

Sept. 7. — But let me wait — yes, wait^ for God will surely 
help me as I need ! How cheering the thought ! How 
faithless my heart ! 

Sept. 9. — I promised to Mr Kyd last Sabbath to drink 
tea with him this afternoon in Quarrywood. I hope to 
enjoy, at all events, much pleasure from the natural 
scenes with which I will be surrounded on this lovely 
afternoon. 

I would here note my present state of mind. The war 
is going on incessantly ; only God is gracious and aids me 
and upholds me. I have an increasing desire to work for 
God, and I am only happy at present in the office from the 
prospect of my soon leaving it. My faith in God is some- 
times such as to give me joy even when surrounded by 
difficulties ; but I distrust Him much — I confess I do — 
although nothing is more ungrateful. I am, I humbly trust, 
advancing heavenward ; following on to know the Lord ; 
although I am not at all what I ought to be. Oh, no ! I 
have not attained to anything at which I can sit down and 
content myself. Perfection — that is the goal ; eternity is its 



FROM KNOCKANDO TO BEDFORD ii 

period of enjoyment ; life is the period of trial — of struggles. 
But the goal, the goal is at the end ; and by God's help I am 
confident I shall reach it. 

Sept, 1 1. — I got confused a little when visiting a prominent 
citizen on business ; I cannot meet such a one. What must 
I do to get more brass in my face ? 

Sept. II, Monday. — I am more and more convinced that 
pride is a scrambling weed within me and that God is wisely 
chastising me by inaiining me in my love of applause and 
distinction. O that I may be enabled to pray very earnestly 
against this most heinous of sins ! 

Sept, 12. — O that I may grow in every Christian grace. 
I am now convinced that I am very vain and proud ; and 
I want with God's help to crucify these remaining weeds. 
I pray for lowliness of heart, to be made, in short, like my 
blessed Saviour. O, who was ever like Him ! 

Sept. 13. — I continue to pray in an especial manner for 
humility ; and I indeed find that I have very much need. 
How deceitful is my own heart ! I have just lighted, as it 
were, on a nook containing contraband goods — which had 
no right to be there, but which I in my blindness overlooked. 
The heart is indeed deceitful above all things. O may the 
Holy Spirit aid and help me to continue to carry on a 
successful warfare with everything that defileth the heart — 
every evil which may be lurking unperceived. How silly 
and vain is this feeling which is so strong within me. Some- 
times I am tempted thus by Satan : " Now look at so and so. 
He is a Christian like you and yet every one knows he is 
prouder and vainer than you are. You are good enough. 
Take it easy. See what a fearful amount of labour you will 
have before you overcome these propensities. Be contented 
with your position. You are better than many and as good 
as a great number of Christians. Don't bestir yourself. 
Just look at that high difficult mountain. When would you 
reach its summit ? You are best where you are." So 
whispers the Devil ; but God be glorified and praised, I can 
say, " Get thee behind me, Satan." I am not striving to be 
like other men. Man is not the model or pattern which I am 
striving to imitate — guilty fallen man. No; I look to a 
perfect model. I take a pattern from perfection. I must 
therefore reach forward and not look on what I may have 
attained, but daily strive to become more and more like 
Jesus. I trust I shall continue more and more to per- 



12 JOHN MACKENZIE 

ceive and realize the true beauty and blessedness of that 
character which Jesus possessed, and still possesses. 

Sept. 1 6. — Passed the afternoon with my father, and after- 
wards began to read the report of the L. M. S., which really 
gave delight to my heart. Think of sixty native young men 
in one of the South Sea Islands, in course of being trained as 
ministers of the Gospel. Glory be to God ! O the future ! 
the future ! when the earth shall be full of the knowledge of 
the Lord. 

Held my weekly prayer in the midst of a clump of trees 
to-night in darkness and solitude. I had some freedom and 
some sense of the presence of God. 

Sept. 1 7, Sunday. — At the communion table to-day I felt 
more overcome than ever before. What a glorious feeling ! 
Dear Jesus ! He was not there hidden as He often is to my 
darkened mind. Heaven seemed very near, life very short; 
and to spend my life as a missionary of the Gospel appeared 
a glorious work indeed. O, I felt eager to engage in it ! 
Surely God, when He thinks proper, will open a door for 
me. 

Sept. 19. — Felt some strange doubts sweep into my mind 
this afternoon. I cannot account for their coming, nor for 
their strength, but I know they are of such a nature as to 
undermine the whole matter of religion altogether in my soul. 
They strike at the very root. 

But when I think of the matter, I am led to wonder why 
I would trifle with such things. Religion subject to a 
doubt ? Get thee behind me, Satan. Thou alone couldst 
say so. Away with all doubt. I cannot look on religion in 
any way but it convinces me of its truth. I would as soon 
deny my own existence as deny the truth of religion. God 
help this darkened, blinded, stumbling, but trusting and 
confiding soul ! For Jesus' sake ! 

The immortality of the soul is what the tempter would 
have me discredit, and of course denying it I deny all 
religion. God forbid ! 

Sept. 20. — Before retiring to rest last night I had a sweet 
outpouring of my soul to God in prayer. I felt as if I could 
suffer all things to be taken away if God Himself remain. I 
felt that He was the only Being in the universe whom I 
could depend upon, love or seek after ; and in the language 
of the Psalmist I cried, "Whom have I in heaven but Thee, 
and there is none in all the earth that my soul desireth 



FROM KNOCKANDO TO BEDFORD 13 

beside Thee." Then indeed did God seem precious and 
to be all in all, sine qua non, in the estimation of my 
soul. 

This morning I find my mind is at comparative rest ; and 
I enjoy this rest more when I shut my eyes to everything 
and let my soul commune with God. 'Tis then I know 
there must be a God, and if a God then the God of the 
Bible ; and if a God of the Bible — then the Bible with all 
its doctrines is the Word of God. 

I read a paper on " The Past and Present of Christianity," 
the leading idea in which is that arguing on plain fact, there 
is nothing clearer than that the religion of Jesus of Nazareth 
will soon become the religion of the world — excluding for 
the time the question whether or not it is divine or true. 

I have been reading the report of the L. M. S. and con- 
sidering what country I would like to go to. I would prefer 
India, China, or Africa to all others. Wide, glorious, fields 
there. O that I were there ; speaking to them the saving 
truths of the Gospel in the people's language. O God ! — Do 
not delay my beginning to devote myself entirely to pre- 
paration for Thy own work. 

Sabbath, 24M Sept. — I repeated my address [an address 
intended for a Sunday evening meeting] this morning in 
about twenty-five minutes, and I am pleased with it. I 
think it will do. I hope God will bless me and give me 
much of His Spirit, so that I may preach boldly and also 
simply, clearly, truthfully, meekly from the heart. Preach- 
ing is a gift. I pray God earnestly for it. . . . Spoke to 
Mr M'Laren, Treasurer to the Congregational Union, who 
was in town and sat down with the church at the Lord's 
Table to-day. 

Sunday, 'i^oth September. — In the afternoon I was singu- 
larly dealt with. My confusion and reddening of face 
came on me : and I became miserable, for I know it was 
my own desperate wicked heart that was to blame. After I 
came home I found liberty to pray earnestly to God against 
pride and vain glory. 

Friday, 6th October. — This morning I read the decisive 
answer by the Directors of the L. M. S. on my application. 
I am rejected. I am too young — have not been long 
enough member of a church — and it would be too expen- 
sive to educate me at the Society's expense. These are 
their reasons for not accepting me. . . . After reading this 



14 JOHN MACKENZIE 

letter I found my way to God's Throne and then poured out 
my thanks to Him as the God of Providence for giving me 
this new token that He is looking over my affairs and guiding 
my footsteps. I shall call on Messrs M'Niel and Guthrie in 
the evening or through the day. I have to work at tv/o 
o'clock. How many feelings crowd upon me ! Pride rises 
at the disappointment : but I trust God will enable me in 
humility and true meekness to conduct myself. 

October 29. — From this Sabbath forward I will, O God 
— trusting in Thee — struggle and cry like one drowning, 
and I will hold on to the anchor of safety, even Jesus ; and 
I will give Thee no rest until Thou hast blessed me with 
Thine own blessing, O God, imperfect guilty wretch that I 
am. I love Thee ; I delight in Thee ; I long for Thy fellow- 
ship more and more. Fan the flame O God of Hosts, and 
fit me for a residence in heaven. 

Thursday^ 2d November. — I am rather afraid there is 
something going on decidedly evil with respect to my health. 
I am afraid of colds and consumption. 

The ensuing winter proved to be a very trying one. 
The intense energy of the young man, his absorption 
in the pursuit of the spiritual life, and his unsated 
yearning to be definitely at work in the Master's ex- 
clusive service, told upon his health. When spring 
time came he had good reason to be anxious about 
his cough and his sense of weakness. His state of 
perplexity and his spiritual struggles led him to draw 
up several papers dealing with his religious life and 
character. The longest of these, as it reveals the 
depth of his religious convictions and contains one or 
two passages of intense pathos, should be read here in 
full It is entitled : — 

A Solemn Covenant and Confession, made on account 
of a recent temptation and in view of my present critical 
circumstances. Dated February 16, 1855. 

My Father and God, — In the name of Jesus I approach 
Thy throne, adoring Thy glorious Majesty and supreme 
dominion. I am the clay ; Thou art the Potter ; what I 
am, I am through Thy favour and help alone. I joy most 
of all that I can behold in Thee a Friend, in whom I once 



FROM KNOCKANDO TO BEDFORD i 5 

only saw an angry judge ; and that I can address Thee in 
the language of a child of Thine, and call Thee Father. I 
thank Thee for the infinitely lovely scheme of redemption — 
for my interest in it and for all the precious solacing promises, 
counsels, and warnings given in Thy Revealed Will. At this 
time, it is my desire reverently to seek Thy presence and 
throne of grace that I may pour out my whole heart in 
Thy sight — lay all my griefs before Thee, and make my 
supplications and prayers known unto Thee. I desire 
to do so in a solemn, godly, confiding spirit \ that so 
my soul may be strengthened and mine eyes opened and 
my steps directed and confirmed by Thee, in my present 
circumstances. 

O Lord, Thou knowest that my heart is vile, corrupt, 
and bespotted with the impurities of corruption. Thou hast 
seen how it has gone awhoring after what is not allowable ; 
how it has caused me to sin even in Thine own courts ; how 
my heart has been alienated from Thee, and drawn away 
after the desires of the flesh and of the eye. Satan, to 
hinder my prayers, has wounded me — caused me to stumble; 
but oh, I thank Thee I have not fallen. Though with a 
divided heart, still. Lord, Thou knowest how I struggled. 
Hear, O God, my confession of sin ; listen when I seek Thy 
pardoning mercy; grant me Thy Spirit's healing, restoring, 
reviving influences. May I see where my hope is. May I 
have always before me where my weakness lies ; and may I 
watch and pray that I enter not into temptation. Lord, 
save me from my carnal heart ; O free me from seeking 
greedily the applause of men ; deliver me, I implore Thee, 
from mingling the things of sense and worldly beauty with 
Thy service and sanctuary and its spiritual, undivided heart- 
worship. I confess my bent to fall into such sins ; and 
Lord, I know that Thou alone canst help me. Therefore, O 
Lord, I call upon Thee to save me from my besetting sins — 
especially as Thou hast set before me the prospect of taking 
the leading part in the services of Thy House on a portion of 
Thy Holy day. O may I have then, and at all times, a 
single eye to Thy glory ; may time sink to its true position, 
and Eternity assume its place in my mind's eye ; may I have 
Jesus' spirit inwrought in my heart ; may I breathe the breath 
of heavenly benevolence over my fellow-creatures ; may I 
wrestle mightily for their souls, in public and in private ; and 
may I have eloquence to persuade and entice them to 



i6 JOHN MACKENZIE 

follow Thee, and leave the unsatisfying employments of 
time and of this world. 

O my God, I desire also to remember before Thee my 
position. Since Thou knowest the inmost workings of my 
heart, I can confidently appeal to Thee. Every day, Lord, 
from Monday morning till Friday, I am engaged as a printer. 
I cannot then think on Thee, or if I do I cannot think 
on my work ; I cannot learn languages, or study sermons, 
or meditate on Thy Word in order to work Thy work ; no, I 
am tied to the earth. Then I have on an average seven 
hours work after publication, when Thy Sabbath steals upon 
me in all its loveliness. Father, while I admire Thine 
infinite wisdom and providential foresight, I joy and glory 
in Thee when I remember that Thou art pleased to call 
some not only to repentance and faith, but also to the holy 
work of the service of the Gospel. Father, I feel in my heart 
that I am called by Thee for this service ; all Thy dealings 
with my soul testify to this ; and above all Thou hast been 
pleased, most gracious Lord, even in my present situation, 
to allow me to conduct the public worship of Thy sanctuary, 
and on various occasions publicly to proclaim Thy great 
Salvation. Seeing that Thou, most blessed Father, hast been 
so leading me and honouring me with regard to the work of 
the ministry, I come with trembling boldness and request 
Thee to separate me to the work. Give me over to the 
Saviour ; liberate me from worldly engagements ; grant that 
my time may be the property of Jesus ; and that henceforth 
my whole life may be spent in His service. Father, I have 
much to learn, in language and other knowledge, before 
I could take upon me Thy work and its mighty responsi- 
bility ; and alas ! Thou knowest how very little I am able to 
do in this way in my present situation. O take me away, 
then, dear Father. O let those who have no higher 
aspirations — alas that there should be such ! — occupy my 
present worldly situation, and give me, O give me, to Thy 
work and Thy ministry all my lifetime. Thou knowest my 
heart and Thou knowest all things. My God, I complain to 
Thee because I am so far away from the true end and object 
of my being. My heart is far away ; my calling is far away ; 
verily, O God, I am at a distance from Thee. But O, 
draw Thou near to me, and give me power to draw near to 
Thee both in heart and in occupation ; and as the work 
of the ministry is the nearest to Thee that I could engage 



FROM KNOCKANDO TO BEDFORD 17 

in, I desire that my heart and my time, my intellect, my 
all, may be given to Thee, that so I may be united and 
become in some measure like to those holy beings who never 
feel a distracting thought, and are never at a distance from 
Thee, but are always serving Thee and doing Thy will. O 
God, come and rescue me. Come, I plead — I beseech — 
and make no tarrying. Father, I ask that Thou wouldst 
place me where I will be a//, time, heart, talent, all the 
property of my dear Jesus. O, is He not worthy? And 
though my sins may be as mountains, O can they endure 
before the purifying influences of Jesus' glorious and all 
efficacious atonement ? Is not Thy Spirit able to work in me, 
both to will and to do of Thy good pleasure ? Is He not 
able to give me the Spirit of the holy calling to which I 
aspire ? And hast Thou not said that those who seek Thee 
early shall find Thee ? My God ! my God ! I appeal to 
Thee. O, for the sake of Jesus, who is infinitely worthy — 
for the sake of the world, which is the object of Thy bound- 
less pity, and for Thy Name's sake and Thy glory's sake — form 
this heart of mine into conformity to Thy will, and separate me 
to the work of the service of Thy Gospel. Do not delay — 
make no tarrying — come and do unto me above my 
request. 

O guide my steps. Lord ; O take me to Thyself ; O permit 
me not to go astray or aside, but to go right onwards unto 
perfection. Bless this day's exercises ; bless this writing ; O 
God, may my soul be strengthened mightily with strength 
from on high, and may every day of my life and every hour 
here be given to Thee, and every volition of my will and 
every affection of my heart. 

And unto Thee, the King eternal, immortal, and in- 
visible, the only wise God, be all the glory now, henceforth, 
and evermore. Amen. 

In March there comes a paper entitled " A Prayer 
while in a Dilemma," to which are added observations 
on the same subject for the week following. It was a 
small incident which had aroused his conscience and 
his liveliest emotions, because it seemed to have a 
bearing on his release from the printer's desk. But 
that is followed by a " Resolution, dated May 2, 1855," 
which shows very clearly that his unnatural state of 



18 JOHN MACKENZIE 

excitement had brought on and was now aggravated 
by serious ill-health. 

Resolution^ dated May 2, 1855. 

Seeing I have been for some time suffering from a 
nervous complaint or disorder, which prevents my preserv- 
ing equanimity or calmness of mind, especially when exposed 
to the observation of others, and which also produces effects 
on my external frame quite out of keeping with that mild 
and dignified serenity which ought to characterise a child of 
God, I resolve, for the glory of God and the honour of my 
Saviour's name, to take such steps as are most likely to 
succeed in overcoming this seated weakness in my constitu- 
tion. For this purpose I note the underneath resolves, which 
are all embodied in the one idea — to be like Christ : — 

1. Labour to preserve calmness in all places and on all 
occasions — in imitation of my Saviour. 

2. Avoid being angry. Where there is cause for displea- 
sure, preserve mildness and composure. 

3. In my manner, seek after true politeness^ and banish 
all clownish awkwardness^ which of itself produces confusion 
of mind. No ostentation. 

4. As it is an idea which causes the disorder in my system, 
harbour it as little as possible. Leave myself in my thoughts. 
Ask not what I shall eat, etc., or how I shall ever progress. 
Is He not able ? Am I not His ? If I seek Him with my 
whole heart — if I pour out the plaint of a downcast, sobbing, 
sighing soul — O will not Jesus hear it ? Will He not lead 
me on ? Are my talents — is my whole life on earth — to be 
lost for good because of one idea lodging in my mind ? When 
encouraged to seek the Lord's work and the Lord's glory, is 
it my duty to sit down and cherish an idea that I shall never 
be enabled to do anything in that work to which God is 
calling me and fitting me ? Ought I not to banish that idea ? 
Ought I not to lean upon God in confidence of soul ? If I 
had full confidence I would have the victory. O it is hard — 
and yet it is pleasant — it is painfully sweet to be afflicted ! 

But I pray God that, at all events. His glory may be 
wrought out m me and by me — according to His own good 
will and pleasure — that 7ny feet may be made like hinds^ feet. 

5. I may add to my resolutions to take and grasp in my 
mind the truth about all things. Treat God as God, Jesus 
as my own Jesus, distinguished men with becoming respect, 



FROM KNOCKANDO TO BEDFORD 19 

but with no sheepish dread. Treat men as men, always with 
respect as possessors of souls that shall last for ever ; never 
with disdain or pride. 

6. On all occasions do my utmost for Jesus Christ, 
depending on His aid and support. 

Very shortly after this Mackenzie was allowed, on 
the ground of ill-health, to leave the printer's office. 
He went to his native air of Knockando, where he 
engaged in study and found opportunities for preach- 
ing. Into both he threw his energies very heartily. 
His diary, as well as his letters to James Ross, reflect 
the zest and zeal with which he prepared and delivered 
his earnest gospel addresses. Health returned steadily 
though slowly, as he walked over that portion of 
Strathspey, musing and praying, visiting and preaching. 
All this time his mind was fixed on his high aspira- 
tions and the career he longed for. He enjoyed many 
" trances of thought and mountings of the mind." 

As he now believed that he was finally cut off from 
his Elgin life, and would soon be permanently removed 
from his former associations, a strong desire took hold 
of him to address the young men of that royal burgh, 
to deliver one last, earnest message in the name of his 
Master. He knew the risks, but determined to face 
them. His friends, not without trepidation, helped 
him, James Ross rendering special aid as to the 
advertising of the event. The Independent Chapel 
was lent for the occasion on Sunday evening, Sep- 
tember 2nd. Mr Ross still remembers the scene, and 
his memory tallies wonderfully with the " Jottings " 
which Mackenzie made at the time. " What crowds ! 
Passages, vestry, stairs, even the lane near the door, 
were occupied, and many went away." " An old man 
remarked regarding the attendance of young men, 
that he did not believe there were so many in Elgin." 
The young preacher delivering his soul to his compeers 
was nervous and excited ; but he had chosen for his 



20 JOHN MACKENZIE 

address that theme of which his own heart was ever 
full — " Christ is all and in all " (Col. iii. 1 1 ) — and 
his intense passion made its own impression on his 
audience. 

In the previous July Mackenzie had renewed his 
application to the London Missionary Society, and 
it so happened that three days after the delivery of 
this farewell address to the young men of Elgin he 
received a letter summoning him to London to meet 
with the Committee of the Directors on September 
loth. After a forty minutes' examination before 
the venerable directors and officials the young candi- 
date, to his overflowing delight, was informed that 
he had been accepted '' on probation," and would be 
now sent to the Society's Seminary at Bedford to 
undergo what training and education might be found 
necessary to fit him for active service in the mission 
field. It was characteristic of his whole spirit at 
this period that during the few days of sight-seeing 
which he could spend in London he found time to 
look up one or two young men from the North, 
whom he wished to bring to the faith of Christ. 



CHAPTER II 

FROM BEDFORD TO CAPE TOWN (1855-1858) 

The London Missionary Society had some difficulty 
in its earliest years with regard to the education of its 
missionaries. While some came before the Directors 
whose education for the ministry was complete, many, 
if not most, of the candidates were young men whose 
advantages had been limited, and who needed assist- 
ance to obtain an adequate training. To meet this 
need the Society from time to time established Semi- 
naries at various places, generally under the care of 
some minister whose scholarship and fervour fitted 
him to do the best for the young men. One of these 
seminaries was for a long while conducted by the Rev. 
J. Jukes, Congregational minister at Bedford, who had 
as his colleague-instructor, the Rev. W. Alliott. The 
students, whose numbers varied between three or four 
and eight or ten, usually boarded with Mr Jukes. They 
worked at New Testament Greek, a little Hebrew, 
Christian Evidences and Systematic Theology, Logic 
and Mathematics. Much attention was given to the 
writing and delivery of sermons. The students were 
also sent out every Sunday to preach in the neighbour- 
ing villages, and were encouraged and expected to 
engage in other forms of Christian work. 

Here, then, Mackenzie lived and studied, prayed 
and preached from September 1855 till December 
1857. At the latter date he went to Edinburgh 
for some months of further study in medicine and 
theology. His Diary bears constant witness to the 
eager joy with which he cast himself into the task 



22 JOHN MACKENZIE 

of direct and rapid preparation for his life's calling. 
Perplexities and difficulties were by no means all at 
once dispersed. He was on " probation " for a full 
year, and he found that the course even of a theo- 
logical student can present its own peculiar obstacles, 
temptations, and sorrows. One fact, however, stands 
out above all others in the written mirror of his daily 
life, that, in spite of the rush of work which came 
upon him, in spite of domestic distractions, he steadily 
and almost invariably gave much time every day to 
intense and humble prayer. For Mackenzie, it might 
be said that, to pray was to live. The experiences 
of his soul in prayer were as fascinating, varied, and 
momentous, as any events in his outward life. He 
records often and often that his prayer-hour was 
free or restrained, that he wrestled or was calm 
and restful, that God was near and His voice clear, 
or far off and unattainable, that he " overcame God " 
and won an answer from Him, or rose unsatisfied, 
but determined to trust, and trust forever. 

It may be said here once for all, that this full life 
of prayer was maintained by Mackenzie to the end. 
Though he did not continue to record his experiences 
in a diary, and was ever reticent about his personal 
life, it was known in his home that he prayed about 
everything. Intercessory prayer was always a most 
real and sacred obligation and joy to him ; and what 
may be called consultative prayer, in which he went 
over his duties and practical problems before God, 
seeking light and the assurance of his Master's 
approval, was as necessary to him as food and drink. 
The present writer remembers as a boy coming into 
his father's room and finding him leaning on the post 
of his bed. When he raised his head a deep red 
mark on the forehead made by the pressure of the 
knuckles of his hand, and the dimmed look of his 
eyes, bespoke at once the length and intensity of his 



FROM BEDFORD TO CAPE TOWN 23 

prayer. When childishly asked what was the matter, 
he said he had been praying about some point con- 
nected with his book, his first book, on which he was 
at the time busily engaged. It may be confidently 
said that he never entered upon any important under- 
taking without real consultative prayer. On the other 
hand, the extent to which he believed in the power of 
the prayers of others for him was often revealed in 
his letters urging his correspondents to pray. As a 
young man he wrote to James Ross to say, " Do not 
forget me, Jamie, you yourself know where. At work 
you may forget me ; but oh ! ' mind' me there !" 

Among the students who were at Bedford in 1855 
there may be named two for whom Mackenzie retained 
a permanent affection. One of these was James 
Duthie, afterwards a well-known missionary in South 
India. Of him he writes to James Ross saying, " We 
made ourselves brothers, although he belongs to Aber- 
deen." The other was Arthur Hall, brother of the 
already famous Rev. Newman Hall, who was pre- 
paring for his entrance upon the full course of study 
at New College, London, and who became an honoured 
Congregational minister. In the person of a third 
student, who was a Eurasian, and with whom he was 
thrown into close and very friendly association, the 
young Scottish student was brought face to face with 
that problem of the mixture of races which in after 
years put him into many a perplexing situation, 
and gave him food for endless, painful, and incon- 
clusive reflection. He came on one occasion unex- 
pectedly upon this fellow -student, and found him 
absorbed in a kind of agony over the life-long bitter- 
ness of his lot, looking at his hands, apostrophising 
them, and asking his Maker why this colour, which 
made him the scorn and dislike of so many, had been 
bestowed upon him. Mackenzie never forgot that 
scene ; it made him, when mixed marriages were pro- 



24 JOHN MACKENZIE 

posed or discussed, think always and first not of those 
who in choosing each other deliberately chose their 
social lot, but of the children who would inherit it 
with its burdens and sorrows. 

His evangelic zeal was so real and sincere that he 
did not allow the pursuit of his studies or even the 
discharge of mission duties at Bedford to absolve him 
from similar responsibilities elsewhere. During this 
winter he corresponded with former Elgin friends, and 
with his own family relatives regarding their spiritual 
interests. About one friend he writes in his diary, 
" Oh ! how I long for that young man's conversion. 
It is my constant prayer to God, that mercy may be 
extended to him." The following extracts from the 
diary and other personal memoranda of the year 
1855-6 will throw light upon the strenuous life of 
this young missionary student in his twenty-first 
year : — 

Saturday^ Nov. 3, 1855. — In spiritual things, I have 
received this idea very powerfully into my mind — that all 
my afflictions, distresses and alarms, are the produce of sin 
within me. If I weep because of heavy afflictions or dis- 
quietude — sin has procured it for me — yea, mine own sin. 
Let me remember this : I never felt it so deeply before. 
If I weep at all let it be, not because of the heavy affliction 
or distress, but let me turn to the producing cause and weep 
over my sins with a penitent heart, and let my prayer be, not 
principally as before, that God would remove His afflictive 
hand and give me health and soundness — but that he would 
be pleased to qualify me for the receipt of that blessing — that 
He would sanctify my heart so as to take away the strength 
from the sin which is there indwelling — and having done so, 
extend me the blessings I have so long pleaded for. O may 
I be taught of God ! O may He be ever very near me ! I 
have had some seasons of deeply earnest prayer — may they 
be multiplied in strength and number ! 

Thursday^ Nov. 8. — To-night I had a season of prayer 
such as I have not enjoyed on any previous occasion, both 
as regards intensity of feeling and the enlightenment which 



FROM BEDFORD TO CAPE TOWN 25 

pervaded my mind. I was alone in my study : my light I 
had extinguished : the flickering of some fire from the grate 
cast a dim light over the room. I communed with God — 
felt His presence — spoke to Him — wrestled with Him — 
for about an hour. I went to bed a happy, victorious man : 
there was a smile on my lips and calmness in my counte- 
nance ; and oh my heart was full — glowing with emotion : 
for I lay down that night with the assurance that I would be 
specially honoured — specially favoured — specially endowed 
by God ; and that my life would be made more than even I 
could imagine. I felt the calmness which follows assurance ; 
and I shall consider this night one of the great eras of my 
life. 

Sunday^ 1 1 Nov. — Preached in the evening at Cardington. 
Tea at Mr Bodgers'. Thank God for my present state and 
feelings and ideas ; but I am not at all what I shall be. I 
preached more rousingly than I have yet done in England. 
And, strange to say, it was almost extempore ; although I had 
notes, somehow I did not stick to them. I must guard 
against this. It encourages looseness in preaching. 

Saturday^ 16th Nov. — To-night I have devoted my time 
after supper for meditation and reflection on my state before 
God ; and I shall begin by noting my past week's history, at 
least what bears on the matter before me. As a whole the 
past week has been one of considerable spiritual earnestness : 
prayers for progress — for a special outpouring of God's 
Spirit — for strength to advance and make life henceforth a 
great and noble thing — have been daily uttered. I have also 
had much sweet communion with my God : and having 
been engaged during a part of most of the days of the week 
in writing on " The Prodigal's Resolution," I felt my mind 
much benefited thereby, and my spirit led out to regard my 
God as a merciful Father. I am much afraid, however, of 
spiritual pride or rather — a desire for the applause of men. 
This is a most disgusting feature in my character. Let me 
come forth from it entirely ; and regard no expressions of 
applause as to me, but to the grace of God in me. Let men 
say of me what they will — I will come to my dear Jesus and 
say, " It is all Thine." I am studying in the same room 
with a lad who is rather rude in his manners, and I would 
wish his influence were removed ; for one cannot help being 
to some extent thus affected by association. One thought has 
come prominently into my mind this week : it has been its 



26 JOHN MACKENZIE 

lesson, its leading idea, viz. : that association with God 
and deep meditation — holy communion and earnest prayer 
— are the only means which will effectually develop a noble 
mind — a great spirit within me. At the same time it is of 
the utmost importance that the other associations of my 
mind be of a healthy description. I must say that I feel a 
great want here — for although all the young men here are 
excellent persons yet their company has not that effect which 
I could wish : their conversation is not what I would 
desire. I yearn to read (since I can't speak with such) the 
thought and lives of the truly great. May the Lord guide 
me ! I must keep hold of this idea : it is of great impor- 
tance. For I must not stand still : no, by every means I 
must go forward. I shall see if I can't get some biography 
for half an hour each day. And I shall take up one of the 
Apostles, follow out all that is recorded of him, and endeavour 
to follow him as he followed Christ, and derive also suitable 
lessons from his whole life. 

Mr Jukes has passed high encomiums upon me; and 
to-day he praised very much my sermon on the Prodigal Son. 

if I deserved this praise ! O if I strained every nerve for Christ! 

1 must do this. I will do it in the strength of the Lord. 

Have obtained much consolation and strength and en- 
couragement from the thought that the Lord will help the 
resolved man. I have resolved to rise. But now I must 
record somewhat regarding my habits as a student during 
the past week. They have been very irregular — not what 
they must be. Everything except Greek had to be thrown 
aside to complete my sermon, and after all I had barely time 
for it. I have not had more than 7 hours sleep, nor less 
than 6 during past week. I am really quite lazy : it requires 
effort to rise on a freezing morning while your companion is 
soundly sleeping. I have a watch now — a very fine one ; 
and I must be regular in this matter now. Next week I 
shall always be in bed by 1 1 and up at 5 — for a trial. I 
shall encourage meditation and soul communion with God in 
the house and by the way, so I shall be moulded. I have 
done nothing besides Greek this week, and that sermon. It 
was too long. 

In health I am improving. But palpitation at the heart 
has not abated. It is not troublesome, however — although 
I do wish it were away. I think I may record increased 
strength of nerve and energy in public. 



FROM BEDFORD TO CAPE TOWN 27 

Wednesday, 20th Nov. — My breath is towards heaven. 
My heart yearns, longs for the mighty God, my deliverer. 
But I am sure of one thing — that as the power of the living 
God is unquestionable with me I must prevail. But, oh, it 
is speed I long for ! Now I would arise. And alas ! alas ! 
I feel all wrong. I will look to God for the blessing now. I 
feel crushed at the thought of life. Great God ! in mercy 
visit a poor worm and lift him up and enable him to carry 
out the resolutions which I am persuaded are begotten 
within me by Thy good Spirit. I feel certain I am on the 
right track : what a mercy ! If I do not succeed, by the 
grace of God I will die with the wish. 

Saturday, 2^th Nov. — On a retrospective view of the 
past week, I have much cause for thankfulness, principally 
because I am still kept in an earnest praying frame. I have, 
as it were, assaulted the Divine throne, and I do believe God 
will do great things for me. I feel more resolute. But, oh, 
how easily I am cast down ! Prayer, however, as I trust, will 
conquer. 

Prayer becomes sweeter and more pleasant and also nobler 
than formerly. I am enabled to realize the Divine Presence 
more and Jesus never appeared so lovely — so dear to my 
soul — as He does now. I love Him and He loves me. 
Who shall separate us 2 And if He wills me to rise and do 
His will, and if I will the same, who can thwart the glorious 
movement ? 

I resolved and vowed before God (in dependence entirely 
on His grace) to be resolute and decided in the path of 
duty ; to crucify every habit which stands in the way of my 
developing my character and working my work ; to exert all 
my energies to do thoroughly whatever lies before me ; to 
realise and assume the dignity and bearing belonging to my 
position. All these resolutions have reference to one practical 
idea — a life of devoted missionary labour. That is my aim ; 
to that I will in the strength of God press forward ; for that, 
I will continually seek qualification and strength from on 
high — and especially faith to lay hold on the rich treasures 
of all needed gifts which are within my reach and to which I 
have a claim, which are in fact 77iine but for my want of faith 
to lay hold on and appropriate them. This is an era. I 
have clearer than ever before me my life's aim. 

I have now a set of resolutions for the guidance of my life 
drawn up, which I read on my knees three times a day : and 



28 JOHN MACKENZIE 

I have also copied out from my Testament a number of 
promises and appropriate passages which I read over in my 
devotional exercises, always with increased satisfaction. O 
the word of God is precious ; and the God of Grace is 
indeed kind ; but alas ! alas ! (I wonder He has borne with 
me so long) I am guilty, and careless, and trifling, and irre- 
solute, and timid. 

I have great reason to thank my gracious Father for His 
mercy towards me during the past week. On several 
occasions I have been wonderfully supported — especially in 
curtailing my hours of sleep — but regularity is still wanted 
here. Strength — real strength and nerve seem to be 
slowly finding their way into my being ; but what a load 
there is of an opposite character ! Really, if I attempt d^good 
thing in one way or another I am met by obstacles on every 
hand. Still, higher than my highest mountain of difficulty, 
stronger than my most inveterate foe, is He who is with me 
— my sympathising friend and brother, Jesus the Son of God. 
And still, in the face of opposition and doubt and fear, / will 
hope for the best and go forward. I know His will with all 
my heart. I will endeavour to do it in all things ; and 
leave the rest with Hi7n. I know He loves me very tenderly ; 
I have felt communion with Him inexpressibly sweet and 
precious ; and I am convinced He wishes me to pursue the 
course I am following. Do I wish more strength of mind — 
more dignified and exalted conceptions of Him and of His ? 
Jesus wishes so intensely. Do I wish power and faith and 
nerve to fit for a great life? Willingly will Jesus bestow 
such upon the earnest suppliant. Do I want the influences 
of the Holy Spirit to be stronger within me and to enable 
me to realise my true position and rank as one of the Great 
Family ? Jesus has promised the Holy Spirit for this pur- 
pose. O for the feelings which animate mine elder 
BROTHER ! I am so weak and forgetful. But I will be 
helped by my Jesus and my Father : yes, I am in safe hands : 
all will be well ; eternity as well as time will testify to His 
unmixed love to me. O that I had His Spirit ! I ask 
strength for missionary work : to face cahnly tempests ; ship- 
wreck ; loneliness ; darkness ; temptation ; discouragements ; 
heathenism ; the death of an unknown obscure " servant of 
Jehovah-Jesus." 

There is still a nervous agitation about my manner 
in society which nothing but a nobler frame of mind will 



FROM BEDFORD TO CAPE TOWN 29 

cure. I am sometimes entirely above such things. I need 
food ; I need light ; new strength ; or I will decline and die. 
Therefore I will give my beloved no rest till He doth arise and 
visit me with His richest blessing. This is a most critical 
period in my life. If Satan holds me, he has the life of a man. 
Since Satan has lost me he has lost the life of a man, for that 
life will be used against the power of darkness. He would 
still wound me, still detain me, by magnifying lies and pre- 
senting them to my mind ; but Jesus helps me. I am faith- 
less however. 

I have resolved — determined — to live to Christ and to 
live like Christ. What a blessing and comfort to know, that, 
to do these two things, I may depend on His aid and 
encouragement. Why should I be afraid ? Why cast down ? 
If God be for me who can be against me ? I have been 
wonderfully supported by God ; and I feel encouraged to go 
on. Reverses have been occasioned by mine own weakness. 
The day of manhood is, I humbly earnestly trust, bursting 
upon me ! 

Saturday, 2()th Dec. — Last week has been one of great 
conflict. O how sweet will Heaven be to me ! And if I 
say this in my twenty-first year what reason may I have to 
say it when I'm twice as old ! My mind having been dissi- 
pated by gaiety and social glee, Monday and Tuesday, I rose 
on Wednesday very weak both in body and mind, especially 
the latter ; and yet I am not quite recovered. This of course 
is a lesson. If I ever get on in life it must be in compara- 
tive seclusion and in the atmosphere of prayer. It seemed 
awful to me on some occasions during the past week to have 
to live. O what would I not have given for a reprieve and a 
summons home ! And I am sure this is far from my real 
wishes. I am desirous of a long life of hard work, of self- 
denial for Jesus. 

God help me ! I cried most vehemently with a heaving 
bosom in the following language : " O for truth ! O for light ! " 
over and over again. I saw my past life also, and wept over 
its deformity, regarding myself as the vilest of all His servants 
and unworthy of the name. 

However great the difficulty, I find I must keep a stout 
heart to it, go much to the throne, and do my utmost in 
action : and the good Lord help me. I must conquer every 
evil habit : thafs settled. Idleness, irresolution, careless- 
ness, timidity, irregularity, all must be swept away. In the 



30 JOHN MACKENZIE 

strength of the living God — the helper of the aspirant — I will 
set to work. Never despair. 

Sunday.^ ^oth Dec. — Preached again and with freedom from 
Luke XV, and i8. I observed tears. It is the salvation of 
the soul alone that I want. 

Monday^ 2,ist Dec. — Alone to-night on the cemetery-hill 
here, and by the foot of a fir tree, I poured out my soul to 
God. Reviewing the past year — its victories, its pro- 
vidential events, and its lessons, I was very much en- 
couraged — never felt as I did then the power I really had. 
I saw obstacles give way, difficulties vanish, apparently 
the greatest and most insuperable ; seeming impossibilities 
surmounted, and the most unlikely things take place : and 
I knew that all this was in answer to prayer — taken, as it 
were, by violence. O there is something almost aivful in the 
thought of having moved the Eternal Himself ! But yet it 
is so — in my case as plain and evident as a sunbeam. There 
is here a foundation for hope for the future as well as a 
ground for confidence that I am in the right, heaven-selected 
path of duty. There is here, above all, a powerful induce- 
ment to importune God for the blessings I need — to concen- 
trate my energies, as it were, on a certain gift and to plead for 
it till Heaven is moved, and I am in receipt of it. If I 
prayed myself out of the Courant office, Elgin, at a season when 
everything seemed against me — to the astonishment, mistrust, 
and alartn^ even of some who sympathised with me — may I not 
in the same way pray myself out of every bad habit of thought 
or action. If I prayed myself into a situation which I have 
reason to beUeve was my chief recommendation to the 
Directors of the L. M. S., and if I in that situation was 
enabled to Uve entirely by faith, not knowing whither I was 
going, may I not here in exactly such another situation, so 
pray and wrestle that, as I succeeded with the L. M. S. in 
the one instance, so in the other, I may pray myself into a 
situation where, with the blessing of God, I may be the means 
of special good to the Church and the world, and be the 
instrument in the Divine hand of doing a great work in His 
merciful scheme of reconciling the world to Himself. In my 
prayers on this solemn occasion (on the hill), I had only 
opportunity to state my case fervently and simply, once. I 
had not time to plead much when I was interrupted by the 
sound of approaching footsteps. I resumed prayer, however, 
in my study alone, and had much of the Divine presence. 



FROM BEDFORD TO CAPE TOWN 31 

I set out on the new year with the following special 
requests. 

Kneeling down, I asked not only to receive a Christ-like 
spirit and manner ; resolute, immovable determination ; single- 
ness of heart and humility ; and courage in danger and diffi- 
culty ; but I asked also that I might be sent. 

Saturday^ Jan. ^th, 1856. — This week has been spent 
very much in prayer. 

Delivered a speech at a tea-meeting lately, before my 
tutors. By the grace of God, I was enabled in some measure 
to dedicate that occasion not to the display of my powers, 
but to the delivering something which would be calculated to 
do good for eternity. I went there prayerfully, and I hope I 
did not speak for nought. I have been since told by a lay- 
preacher that he went home saying to his wife that Mr 
Mackenzie would be a man yet. In the strength of God 
alone, and for His glory alone, I will ! 

Saturday^ 12 th Jan. — Last few days have been seasons 
of wrestling. The kingdom must be taken by violence. 

The impression is abroad here that I will not be long in 
Bedford. How it originated I know not. The Lord guide 
me and keep me here and elsewhere. I am in His hands. 
Without qualifying me. He will not send me. Let me look 
to Him with constancy of heart, and strive to cultivate all 
the graces necessary for the arduous life of a missionary. 

An invisible God ! This doctrine has cheered me of 
late : I was struck by the words of Jesus on the Cross, 
" Father, &c." He addressed an invisible Being. He is 
present with me. 

I preached from this subject with some freedom ex- 
temporarily. 

I write on the i6th of February. My health has been 
very good indeed. I am about well. My spirit (my mind) 
has been more cheerful and strengthened than for years, per- 
haps than it ever was. My strength has come from God 
alone. Prayer has been my armoury. Before I can do 
greater things I must walk much nearer to God, close to 
Jesus, holding communion with Him, and keeping Him ever 
before me as an example. 

Africa has engaged my thoughts recently. 
I am still pleading for Faith, Light and Truth, Strength 
and Courage, even to fearlessness. A single humble Spirit 
(habitual). For what, indeed, will make me a Christlike 



32 JOHN MACKENZIE 

man ? My sole but sure confidence and ground of hope is 
the love of Jesus ^ mfinite^ prompt, special. 

During the winter of 1855-56 the young Scotsman 
found his health growing gradually worse. Partly 
this may have been due to a change of habits and 
of climate, partly to the very long hours of work 
to which he gave himself while curtailing his sleep. 
But the most serious phase of his illness was due to 
the effort which he made to lessen the amount of his 
food. He resolved first to deny himself the mere 
pleasure of the table, and further to discipline him- 
self to live on spare and simple diet in order that 
he might be ready for any emergency in his career 
as a missionary. And, as a guide, he wrote out a 
number of detailed rules for the regulation of his 
choice of dishes at table. The result, of course, was 
one which appears in the lives of so many who 
have made severe fasting a part of their spiritual 
life, that he was subject to great depression as well 
as thrilling elation of soul. Spiritual temptations 
fastened upon him also and gave him great distress, 
especially when they took the form of that haunting 
declaration that his life was doomed to be in vain, 
that he could never be of any service to the King- 
dom of God. Indignantly do we find him remonstrat- 
ing against the tyranny of this mere " idea," this 
" false idea." It was not until a visit to a London 
physician opened his eyes to his mistaken zeal, that 
health returned. So far had his experiment been 
carried that, though nearly of age, and not far from 
six feet in height, he weighed only eight stone. 
The climax and the deliverance are described in a 
summary of this severe experience which he wrote 
in London on May i8th, 1856. The following are 
extracts : — 

3. London, May i8th, 1856. — He (Satan) has long 
studied by different methods, by calling up fears and 



FROM BEDFORD TO CAPE TOWN 33 

doubts and mistrust in my mind, with regard to my 
bodily health, which have no foundation whatever. In 
this proceeding he has had to shift his ground, but this 
he has done skilfully, and also too successfully. In answer 
to prayer I am now, blessed be God, in possession of the 
truth which sets the mind at rest : for I have eminent 
medical advice pronouncing me in good health, diudjltfor 
any country. 

4. He calls up in my mind associations which have a 
tendency to shake my confidence in myself in whatever 
position I may be. He generally brings before me some 
scene in my past sinful life, and says, " These people know 
you not ; but you can't deny that you are the man." 

5. Also in the matter of food my mind has been 
peculiarly exercised of late. The Lord has given me some 
strength, however, and some li^lii,-aH4-4»-cajQ^ now see mine 
adversary in the cunning. ofHiis^i "^iUs-U^^^jStSre^ was my 
mind taken up on this' matter, .tJ:i^£^t-,JU-G9pla^m) my 
mind from it, and could only m.^qitate on tn^^differentiNresults 
of different kinds of fc|.6d, and tl^^feffecfte liryWc food I liny self 
had taken last. I wa'ssg r particular, and thought i>p very 
much on this matter, that I d£S®3t;CC^unt€d tile bite^^I took, 
ate every mouthful with a kind of terror lest I should not 
masticate it aright ; and to crown all, generally got mto a 
confused flutter in settling whether I had eaten enough or 
not ; Satan very often indeed persuading me I had, whereas 
everyone was at a loss to account for my conduct in not 
taking more food. I was reduced to a state of great weak- 
ness, both in body and mind, began to see I was wrong, 
lost confidence in some medicine I was taking, lost confi- 
dence in myself, and became thoroughly miserable, being at 
the time afflicted with a bowel complaint. I was all along 
enabled to study and to keep up with but six hours of sleep. 
From this position God in His mercy removed me by enabling 
me to come to London, where I have now been eleven days, 
and have recovered health and strength and confidence. 

(I shall note this dispensation. I would fain write more 
upon it.) 

6. I want very much love, true love to God. I come and 
pray earnestly to Him. But I wish to have the desire to 
be with Him^ and the vision to perceive Him, and the spirit 
and heart to address Him, and really feel and recognise His 
presence, and not go to Him so much with the feeling of per- 



34 JOHN MACKENZIE 

forming a duty, or of escaping what is evil, as of enjoying 
the presence and partaking of the blessedness of the Almighty. 

In July (1856) he journeyed to Morayshire by 
Glasgow, in fulfilment of a promise to spend most of 
his holiday with his mother. He found labouring in 
Speyside, a young student from the Congregational 
Theological Hall at Edinburgh of the name of John 
Douglas, afterwards the Rev. John Douglas of Glasgow, 
and for some time Secretary of the Congregational 
Union of Scotland. These two, with James Ross, 
spent much time together that August. They tramped 
over the district, visiting the people, preaching the 
Gospel. They made one long-remembered and oft- 
recalled trip to the top of Benrinnes, where they 
solemnly pledged themselves to the service of God. 
To Mackenzie this new friendship proved of im- 
measurable importance, for John Douglas invited him 
to pay a visit to his own home at Portobello. The 
visit was made in August of the following year, 1857, 
and in that home the prospective missionary found 
her who was to be the companion of his long labouring 
years in and for South Africa. 

The session of 1856-57 was passed at Bedford with 
considerably more comfort in every way. The daily 
" jottings " indicate constantly that the prayer life was 
maintained in full vigour, but the descriptions of 
spiritual experiences are briefer and less quotable ; 
references to the ground covered in study are more 
frequent, and show that hard and steady work was 
being done. Mackenzie opened his heart most fully 
at this time to his friend James Ross, with whom he 
felt complete spiritual sympathy. For example, 
speaking of his greatest mercy as being " the presence 
of the Lord Jesus Christ," he says : — 

Jany. 7, 1857. — O let us live with Him — just in His sight 
— live in such a position as will admit of our speaking to 
Him. What a companion ! What conversation ! O one 



FROM BEDFORD TO CAPE TOWN 35 

hour of this is worth far more than hours and days — spent as, 
alas ! too many Christians spend them now-a-days. 

I am persuaded we have not enough of devoted personal 
attachment to Him whom we call our Saviour. O let us be 
extreme on this point, let us burn with love, and yearn 
intensely to testify in actions the existence of this love. 

In another letter (April 30th, 1857) he indulges in 
a characteristic speculation regarding that future life, 
to which he looked forward even as a young man, the 
hope of which influenced him very powerfully all his 
days. Evidently with him, as with all who have 
drunk the Spirit of the New Testament, that " other 
v/orldiiness," when truly and purely cherished, produced 
profound and most admirable effects upon conduct and 
character in this world. 

There are many thoughts which rush into my mind when 
I begin to write to you, Jamie. But I cannot write you a 
long letter — must not, indeed, say much more just now. 
Perhaps many thoughts which we would wish to communicate 
will never be communicated on earth ; but if they are pure 
thoughts, truthful thoughts, then are they not imperish- 
able? If our minds are to be expanded, our memories 
rendered unclouded to call up whatever of truth may have 
lodged in our minds, if these things happen to us in the 
higher and brighter world, perhaps what we know not now 
of one another's thoughts, we shall know hereafter. At any 
rate, it is sweet to think that even the advanced mode of 
communication by Post Office delivery will be effectually 
superseded in heaven. We shall be all together there ! No 
more to part ! To know God and to see the glories of His 
higher creation, the stupendous accomplishments of His 
Wisdom and Power and Benevolence. O my de^ix fellow man , 
this is our Eternity ! This is the " purchased possession " 
of the Friends of Jesus the Crucified ! Take courage, then ; 
for time is short and eternity follows. . . . We are loved by 
the Son of God. O look up, be noble, dignified, devoted, 
indefatigable : for we are loved by Him whom angels 
worship. 

The holiday season of 1857 was also passed in 
Scotland. Part was spent in that momentous visit 



36 JOHN MACKENZIE 

to Portobello, where he met and became engaged to 
Ellen Douglas, the fifth daughter and eighth child of 
William Douglas ; her mother's maiden name was 
Anne Oliver Bruce. Not long after his return to 
Bedford, Mackenzie was told that it was intended to 
send him to South Central Africa along with a party 
of five other missionaries who were appointed to be 
pioneers and founders of new missions in the heart of 
the dark continent, in a region which Livingstone's 
first great journey across the continent had opened up, 
as it seemed, to European influences. To the same 
friend he announces the important event in the follow- 
ing way : — 

It is now settled that J. S. Moffat and I form the mission 
at Matabele — referred to in the last Missionary Chronicle. 
There are other two going besides us, to a station farther 
north ; but arrangements as to site, etc., of missions cannot 
be at present very definite. It is probable we shall sail in 
February next. I hope to be in Scotland next month. I 
daresay I shall see you by and by. 

How different my life has been since I came to England, 
from what it was when you and I used to take those long, 
very long walks of an evening by the Lossie — discussing 
earnestly, and cheering one another on. I suppose this 
other thing is life., and that was its introduction or vestibule. 
Are you the same Jamie of the olden time ? I sometimes 
almost doubt concerning my own identity, so great is the 
change in my whole mental constitution. I'm afraid, if 
there's a change in my spiritual state, it's not much for the 
better, if any. God have mercy on me ! And so I'm off to 
Africa, and in a few years (God helping you) you will be the 

Rev. James Ross, Congregational minister of , in 

Scotland. Very well : we have only one life ; His glory is 
our highest object and end ; in Scotland and in Africa let 
us be the servants of Jehovah. Then, when we shall meet 
before His throne, we shall be approved of Him. 

Mackenzie had long desired to spend part of his 
period of study in Edinburgh ; but the attraction in 
that direction was now intensified by the proximity 
of that home at Portobello to the grey metropolis of 



FROM BEDFORD TO CAPE TOWN 37 

the north. He obtained the consent of the directors 
and went to Edinburgh in December. There he 
remained longer than had been expected, through 
difficulties met by the directors in making arrange- 
ments for the new missionary expedition. But he 
employed his time very fully in study. He made 
many friends, including several who proved most 
valuable and steady allies in years to come. Among 
these the chief one was undoubtedly the late Rev. 
Geo. D. Cullen, M.A., who was so long prominent 
among the Christian circles of Edinburgh. 

At last it was definitely decided that the missionary 
party for South Africa should sail early in the month 
of June 1858. There remained nothing to do but 
be ordained and married, make the final preparations 
for the great undertaking, and then sail forth into 
the unknown future. The ordination took place on 
Monday, April 19th, in the Queen Street Hall, Edin- 
burgh. Though a comparative stranger in the city, 
Mackenzie had made so many friends, and the enter- 
prise in which he was about to embark had, partly 
through its association with the name of Dr. Living- 
stone, attracted so much public attention, that the 
hall was quite crowded on this occasion. On the 
platform, besides those who took part in the service, 
there were many well-known men, including " Rabbi " 
Duncan, of the New College, Edinburgh, and Rev. Drs. 
John Stoughton and Alexander Raleigh. Mackenzie 
believed that " it was the first occasion on which the 
three dissenting denominations had united in conduct- 
ing such a service." The Rev. William Pulsford of 
Albany Street Congregational Church offered the first 
prayer, and the Rev. Geo. D. Cullen, M.A., " asked the 
questions." ^ An address on " Africa as a Field of 

^ The following were the questions which, according to Congrega- 
tional custom, the young candidate for ordinatipn answered in public : — 
"(i) What leads you to conclude that you are a Christian? (2) What 
induced you to devote yourself to the work of a missionary among the 



38 JOHN MACKENZIE 

Missions" was delivered by the Rev. Dr Harper of 
Leith, Professor in the United Presbyterian Divinity 
Hall, and the "charge" to the young minister was 
given by Rev. Dr Lindsay Alexander of Augustine 
Church, Edinburgh. The ordination prayer was 
offered by the Rev. William Swan, formerly missionary 
in Siberia ; an address on the claims of missions was 
delivered by the Rev. Dr Ewart, Free Church Mis- 
sionary at Calcutta, in the absence of Principal Cun- 
ningham ; and a Free Church minister. Rev. Alex. 
Topp (formerly of Elgin), also took part in the service. 

John Mackenzie and Ellen Douglas were married at 
Portobello on April 27th, 1858; a hurried trip was 
made to Morayshire, where the young bride was made 
known to her husband's relatives and his friends. The 
young couple reached London towards the end of 
May, and sailed on the s.s. Athens on June 5 th from 
Southampton. The voyage was uneventful and, 
judged by modern speed, very slow, as they did not 
reach Table Bay till July 14th. During the voyage 
the four young missionaries, who were to be so closely 
associated in so great a work, had opportunity to 
know each other. Two of them were Welshmen, 
the Rev. Roger Price and the Rev. Thomas Morgan 
Thomas. One was from Yorkshire, the Rev. William 
Sykes. Mackenzie used the voyage for reading a 
variety of books, including Livingstone's " Travels " 
and for breaking ground in the Dutch grammar. 

When the ship anchored in Table Bay it was 
immediately boarded by Robert Moffat and the Rev. 
William Thompson, the Society's agent at Cape Town, 
and the father of its present well-known Foreign 
Secretary, the Rev. Ralph Wardlaw Thompson. Dr 
Moffat gave the new missionaries a most affectionate 
greeting, and at once set to work with his untiring, 

heathen ? (3) What are the Doctrines that you believe to be contained in 
the Scriptures ? (4) How do you propose to exercise your ministry 
among the heathen ? " 



FROM BEDFORD TO CAPE TOWN 39 

indomitable energy to prepare for the journey which 
lay before them all, as far as his own station of 
Kuruman. 

Thus far we have found John Mackenzie to be a 
young man whose whole attention was concentrated 
on his own religious experience and on the effort to fit 
himself for the career of a missionary. While he tried 
to make his reading as wide as his opportunities would 
allow, his main intellectual life gathered about his 
religion and his chosen career. The answer which he 
gave at his ordination to the fourth question, indicates 
that he was by no means narrow in his views even at 
this time. By reading and conversation he must have 
already obtained that broad view of the missionary's 
career which he retained to the end. 

" First of all," he said, ^' my proper work, the work 
of my life, is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in 
public and from family to family, instructing both 
young and old in the sacred Scriptures. I desire to 
do the work of an evangelist, and from this to turn 
aside neither to the right hand nor to the left. . . . 
In order to complete the work of elevating the people, 
he (the missionary) must teach them the arts of civilised 
life. If we exhort them to lay aside the sword for the 
ploughshare and the spear for the pruning-hook, we 
must be prepared to teach them to use the one with 
the same dexterity which they exhibited in wielding 
the other. If they are no longer to start upon the 
marauding expedition, if they are not to depend upon 
the precarious results of the chase, then we must teach 
them to till their own land, sow and reap their own 
crops, build their own houses, as well as tend their own 
flocks. Nor is the missionary to Africa content even 
when all this is accomplished. He longs to see the 
African united in friendly intercourse with the general 
brotherhood of the race. He desires to see the African 
ship, freighted with the products of African soil and 



40 JOHN MACKENZIE 

the results of African industry, mingling in the great 
ocean with the ships of other lands and returning home 
richly laden with the varied treasures of commerce." 

Notwithstanding this breadth of view as to the effects 
of the Gospel upon African communities, Mackenzie 
stands at twenty-three years of age on South African 
soil, the evangelist pure and simple, livingly aware only 
of one supreme duty and imperious call from the throne 
of God. 

It is well to recall the fact that he had laid the deep 
foundations of a wider view of his mission in the close 
study of his own character. His evangelism was not 
of that purely emotional and superficial type which 
ignores the relation of divine grace to conduct and the 
organic structure of human life. He knew that the 
authority of Christ would mould his personal manhood 
into the likeness of Christ. His diary is full of this. 
It shows him quivering with painful sensitiveness to 
the disparities that show themselves to his own eye 
between himself and the great Model. lie constantly 
recurs to certain sins and faults which were not har- 
monious with his relation to God in Christ. He speaks 
of his pride and love of praise, of his nervousness before 
others, his lack of nobility and dignity of manner. To 
him these were sins because they were unworthy of a 
Christian man. To him, as he said, " meekness was 
the first-born of nobility of soul " ; and nobility of soul, 
which he once called " a mild and dignified serenity," 
he conceived of as the natural and almost inevitable 
property of one who was united in the depths of his 
spirit to the Son of God. Those who knew him in 
later years will be amazed to learn that he who walked 
so humbly and unselfishly, ever battled with the devil 
of pride and vainglory ; or that he who was universally 
described as calm and self-controlled ever suffered from 
the sins of " blushing " with nervousness and of feeling 
confused when confronted by strangers. 



FROM BEDFORD TO CAPE TOWN 41 

There he stands at Cape Town, with his face to the 
far and gloomy north, nearly six feet in height, broad- 
shouldered but lithe and active, with his fair hair thrown 
back from a massive forehead, with a ruddy beard encir- 
cling his strong features, with those deep-set, light blue 
eyes, that could twinkle with amusement, or flash " sun- 
beams like swords " in a moment of moral indignation. 
Long afterwards an observant man who met him said, 
" I shook hands with him and he looked right through 
me ! " 

From those regions of drought and fever, of 
heathenism and strife, he often carried his memory 
back to a certain quiet nook in the Ladies' Walk, 
along the beloved banks of the Lossie at Elgin, where 
he knelt down one evening at the foot of a tree and 
uttered one strong and intense prayer, which he never 
forgot — " O Lord, send me to the darkest spot on 
earth." Neither had God forgotten it. 



CHAPTER III 

" WANDERJAHRE " (l 85 8-1 864) 

When our band of young missionaries landed in 
South Africa they entered upon work which had 
been already ennobled by their predecessors, during 
almost sixty years of toil. The first of these, the 
founder of the London Missionary Society's work 
in South Africa, was J. T. Vanderkemp, a Hollander, 
a learned linguist and man of science who, having 
given his heart to the cause of foreign missions, 
was sent to South Africa in 1799, at fifty years of 
age. In 1 8 1 5 there landed on those shores one 
whose name was destined to be even more widely 
known in connection with South Africa ; it was 
Robert Moffat. In 18 19 Dr Philip, one of the 
greatest personalities associated with the history of 
Cape Colony, appeared upon the scene. He gave 
up brilliant prospects as a minister in the homeland, 
to found mission work at Cape Town and to be 
the general superintendent of the London Missionary 
Society's operations throughout South Africa. He 
was a man of indomitable courage, penetrating mind, 
sympathetic heart, and clear conscience. He made 
journeys in all directions throughout the colony, and 
by the thoroughness with which he exposed the ill- 
treatment of the native tribes by the white settlers, 
he at once awoke the undying hatred of the latter 
and set in motion many forces tending to improve 
the condition of the former. To this day, it is hard 
to obtain from South African historians anything 
like a moderate and fair judgment of Dr Philip's 
42 



" WANDERJAHRE " 43 

character and work. He had been dead a few years 
when our young missionaries arrived in Cape Colony. 
But a new star was in the ascendant. The name 
of Dr Livingstone, already well known in South 
Africa, had for several years gained fame in Europe 
also. He who had come out to be a medical mis- 
sionary and had, as he thought, settled down for life 
in Bechuanaland to spread the gospel amongst the 
various branches of that race north of Kuruman, 
was driven by strange events from his chosen fields 
of labour. The Boers of the Transvaal had, from 
the time of the Sand River Convention in 1852, 
considered Bechuanaland as finally handed over to 
them by the British Government. They knew what 
missionaries had been doing for forty years in Cape 
Colony ; how faithfully they had stood, in face of 
every danger and opposition, for the rights of the 
native peoples ; how remarkably their education of 
the native peoples strengthened the latter and made 
it impossible for the farmers to treat them as serfs. 
These " immigrant farmers " of the Transvaal, there- 
fore, very bitterly resented the energetic and suc- 
cessful way in which Moffat and Livingstone were 
opening up Christian missions amongst the Bechuana 
tribes, and they set themselves to destroy these 
stations. This was done deliberately and system- 
atically. Dr Moffat, in the end of 1852, describes 
no less than four missionary stations which had 
already been blotted out. In each case the native 
teachers were driven off, the people of the district 
being plundered and slain. Amongst these stations 
was that of Kolobeng, where Dr Livingstone had 
for some years been settled. Dr Theal, the well- 
known South African historian, amongst other attempts 
to disparage the missionary point of view and redeem 
from contempt the attitude of the Boers, has tried 
to prove that the destruction of Livingstone's mission 



44 JOHN MACKENZIE 

was due to the inhabitants of Kolobeng and not to 
the Boers. His bit of special pleading can convince 
no one who knows the bare facts of the case. Amongst 
these must be named this, that Dr Livingstone himself 
shortly afterwards studied the evidence on the spot, 
and described what had occurred in detail. To 
imagine that the people amongst whom he had lived 
on terms of intimacy and affection could unanimously 
deceive him in such a matter is to make him out 
to be one of the dullest of dull human beings. But 
the fact is that visitors to the Marico district, in the 
north-west corner of the Transvaal, from which these 
plunderers went out, had for many years afterwards 
abundant evidences given to them that the Boers 
themselves were the depredators. Both the Rev. 
J. S. Moffat and Mackenzie knew intimately the 
leading Boers of that district ; knew the men who 
had led on that expedition to Kolobeng ; knew the 
houses to which Dr Livingstone's furniture had been 
carried ; and they knew, lastly, that the utmost the 
Boers ever said for themselves was, not that the 
natives had destroyed Livingstone's premises, but 
that the rash deed had been done by the wilder 
young men of the Boer commando without the approval 
of their elders. It was left for ingenious historians 
to suggest, without a particle of evidence, that the 
Bakwena had attacked Livingstone's premises. 

The effect of the pressure which the Boers exercised 
upon the policy of the Bechuanaland missionaries 
from the east, and the hindrances presented by the 
vast Kalahari desert on the west, had been to direct 
the eyes of the pioneers to the north and north-east. 
The Bechuana mission gradually became a long series 
of stations, extending from south to north many 
hundreds of miles, from the Orange River up to the 
Zambesi. The work of exploration which preceded 
this extension of the mission was undertaken by 



" WANDERJAHRE " 45 

Livingstone. His discovery of a portion of the 
Zambesi in i 8 5 i proved to him that the great water- 
way was being made a chief nourisher of the cruel 
slave trade. He therefore resolved to find some 
healthy spots in that region where missionaries could 
live, and from which would radiate the influences that 
ever prove fatal to slavery. In pursuance of this aim, 
Livingstone set out two years later, determined to 
find a shorter route to the coast, either east or west, 
than the long journey by ox-waggon from Cape Town. 
He reached the Makololo country once more, and 
found the chief Sebetuane as friendly as ever. These 
Makololo had been driven northward all the way from 
Basutoland by the terrific regiments of Moselekatse, 
the renegade Zulu warrior who founded the Matabele 
tribe. They had at last found a country where they 
were protected from the Matabele both by the river 
system and by a region infested with that tsetse fly, 
which is so fatal to cattle and horses. From Linyanti, 
the Makololo town, Livingstone went, attended by 
some Makololo servants, to St Paul de Loanda on 
the west coast, where he arrived on May 3 1 st. From 
that place he returned to Linyanti in the faithful and 
self-sacrificing fulfilment of a promise to bring those 
servants back to their own town. Then he set out on 
his still more arduous and magnificent journey to 
Quilimane on the east coast, where he arrived on May 
20th, 1856. Before he left Linyanti he got a promise 
from the chief that, when he returned to that region, 
the chief would lead his tribe out of their most un- 
healthy place of refuge to a higher country north of 
the Zambesi. Livingstone promised that missionaries 
would settle with them there ; and they, it was hoped 
would prove a shield to the Makololo, warding off 
any further attack from the Matabele. It was this 
agreement, made by Livingstone, which led the London 
Missionary Society to undertake the Makololo Mission. 



46 JOHN MACKENZIE 

In what we now call South Bechuanaland the work 
of Christian missions had been already very fairly 
established by such men as Robert Moffat, William 
Ashton, Holloway Helmore, and others. Through 
their labours the entire Scriptures had been translated, 
and evangelistic work had been carried on at various 
centres. The school work, being the weakest spot in the 
history of the Bechuanaland missions, had been begun ; 
and in various towns native teachers laboured more or 
less adequately to present the gospel to their fellow 
countrymen. One of the most interesting spots in 
South Africa must always be the famous mission 
station of Kuruman ; in 1858 it was from every point 
of view one of the most important places outside the 
Cape Colony. The population was small, and its 
chief by no means a man of power. But the great 
missionary, Robert Moffat, had settled there, having 
obtained a most valuable grant of land from the chief, 
on behalf of the Society. The little valley, watered 
from an abundant and perennial spring, he with much 
toil and patience turned into one of the most fruitful 
spots in South Africa. Moffat's training as a Scottish 
gardener stood him in good stead at Kuruman. 
Traders in South Africa usually followed the " mis- 
sionary road," and some store-keepers settled in time 
at Kuruman. Moffat's chief delight was in the work 
of an itinerating evangelist. All other work he under- 
took as an inevitable but grievous diversion of his 
energies from this. He therefore made almost cease- 
less tours of all the native villages and towns within a 
radius of twenty miles ; and when he formed the 
church at Kuruman the converts of these outposts 
became members of that church. Thus was Kuruman 
made, even for the native mind, a new kind of capital. 
As the number of missionaries in Bechuanaland in- 
creased the importance of Kuruman increased. For 
there he lived to whom they all looked up as the 



" WANDERJ AHRE " 47 

leader of their endeavours and the untitled chieftain of 
their circle. Kuruman, in fact, occupied in the minds of 
most people connected with the Bechuana mission, 
the position which the men of another Christian persua- 
sion accord to the residence of a missionary-bishop. 

The missionary party to which Mackenzie belonged 
received much help, in preparing at Cape Town for 
their long journey northwards, from Robert Moffat. 
They were all prepared like enthusiastic young men 
to array themselves under his inspiring leadership. 
Amidst their busy preparations they had time to study 
a little the conditions of life in that colonial capital 
whose inhabitants gave them a warm reception and 
watched their proceedings with intense interest. For 
it meant much to Cape Colony that it should be 
brought into living connection with the distant regions 
of the Zambesi. But the Christian people were pre- 
pared to welcome them for their work's sake, and gave 
them many a hearty God-speed. For this purpose a 
large meeting was held just before their departure, at 
which addresses were made by Cape Town citizens, 
and by several of the missionaries. This meeting has 
not yet been forgotten by those who took part in it, 
as letters received even since the death of Mackenzie 
prove. His own speech on that occasion made many 
friends for him, who never forgot his name and watched 
his career. 

Mackenzie wrote a few letters from Cape Town to 
his home friends which, being the first despatched 
after his voyage, contain a few observations on the 
new world into which he had entered. He is much 
struck with the presence of the Oriental races and the 
celebrations of their own religious rites. He observes 
that nearly all the main branches of Protestant 
Christianity are represented in the religious life of the 
place. One letter describes a glorious day which 
some of them spent climbing Table Mountain. To 



48 JOHN MACKENZIE 

James Ross he sent the observation that American 
editions of standard British authors were being sold at 
Cape Town cheaper than in England (1858). 

The missionaries were introduced to Sir George 
Grey, the Governor of Cape Colony, and were very 
kindly received by him. Grey was one of the few 
Cape Governors who have known how to deal fairly 
with the Cape Dutch and yet to retain their confidence 
and respect. He was at this very time about to set 
out on a journey to meet with some Transvaal Boers 
for the settlement of a dispute, and his mind was 
much occupied with rumours of the wide interpreta- 
tion which these people had put upon that careless 
document, the Sand River Convention. They were 
already extending their aggressive policy northward 
and westward, and, as we shall see, even Kuruman 
was coming rapidly within the scope of their " practical 
politics." In view of all these facts it was a matter of 
some importance that the Governor publicly recognised 
the new missionary enterprise, and frankly expressed 
his good-will toward the representatives of the London 
Missionary Society. 

Robert Moffat resolved to leave with his son and 
family before the rest of the missionary band, in order 
to prepare at Kuruman for their reception, and also to 
prevent the taking of too many oxen through the 
country at the same time. When the new men began 
their journey it was to meet with the severest forms of 
a South African traveller's loss and misery. The 
cattle which had been bought for them before their 
arrival turned out to be very poor ; and they perished 
in the terrible Karroo in large numbers. They were all, 
of course, struck with the monotony and slowness of 
the South African mode of travelling. " The fact is," 
wrote Mrs Mackenzie, "it is almost impossible to write 
while travelling, as we have to do in South Africa. 
There is an awful waste of time connected with it and 



" WANDERJAHRE " 49 

we cannot help it ; we must get to our journey's end, 
and this is the only available mode of doing so. If 
poor South Africa is to be Christianised at an ox- 
waggon pace, what will become of the heathen children 
for many generations ? " 

They reached Beaufort West on October 9th, and 
there were the guests of a Mr Frazer, minister of the 
Dutch Reformed Church, and his family. Mr Frazer 
had come from the north of Scotland, and was 
delighted to meet with one who had more or less 
acquaintance with a number of his old college 
friends and others. Mackenzie preached to the 
English-speaking people on the Sabbath and re- 
ceived an invitation to settle among them as their 
minister. The following brief extracts give an 
interesting glimpse of Mr Frazer's family, from 
which there sprung some well-known South Africans, 
including the wife of President Steyn of the Orange 
Free State : — 

Although Mr Frazer has been in this Colony ever since 
he was a young man, he still retains his Highland accent. 
He has been married twice and has a family of ten, six sons 
and four daughters. His two eldest daughters are married, 
one in Cape Town, the other in Beaufort, to a very nice young 
Scotsman who has a general store. One son is studying for 
the ministry in Holland and another medicine in Aberdeen ; 
the others are quite young. Mrs Frazer is Dutch and speaks 
only that language, and you may imagine how awkward I 
often felt. She understands English quite well, for it is 
spoken regularly in the family, but then I could not always 
understand her Dutch. However, she is an excellent woman 
and was very kind to me, and there was generally some one 
of the children at hand to interpret. All the English-speaking 
people here speak Dutch, from the eldest to the youngest. 
It is amusing to hear the young children speak both 
languages. English parents, however, never allow their 
children to speak in Dutch at home. This I don't wonder 
at for it gives to their English a peculiar accent which indeed 
all the Africanders have to a large extent, and which I don't 
admire. 

D 



50 JOHN MACKENZIE 

Who has adequately described life in an ox-waggon 
in South Africa? There is a poetry as well as a 
misery about it to which no writer has yet done 
justice. Various missionaries and hunters have 
recorded their particular experiences, especially the 
hardships of special journeys. But it remains for 
some gifted pen, ere that peculiar mode of transport 
disappears, to picture its fascinations as well as its 
limitations, its freedom as well as its confinement, its 
constant human interest as well as its monotony. 
The following extract from a letter of Mackenzie's 
written in the first stage of this his first journey gives 
an all too rare glimpse of the actual life : — 

Mitchell Pass near Ceres, 
September 1858. 

Here we are, after a week's journeying by the ox-waggon, 
in a wild but beautiful part of Southern Africa. For the last 
few days we have been surrounded by mountains, some of the 
peaks of which are clad with snow, although lying under a 
sun which to us was actually broiling. Bain's Kloof and Pass, 
which we have just passed through, have many attractions to 
the lover of the grand and imposing in nature. Masses of 
rock have in many instances been blasted to a great depth, 
in order to form the road by which we travelled. I have 
never seen masses of rock so ancient looking^ and yet they 
are chiefly sandstone. 

We outspanned some days ago beside a brook, and really I 
thought more than once that Ellen and I were returning to 
the age of childhood. We went repeatedly together to wash 
our hands in the dancing stream, and as we sat there 
together after the genuine Arcadian fashion (do you know 
it ?), I felt sure that there were many people in this world of 
ours far less happy than this brother and sister of yours. We 
gathered wild flowers, too, day after day, and the top of my 
waggon looks rather gay I can assure you. We enjoy the 
company of our brethren and sisters very much. We form 
quite a village, and there is no loneHness where we chance to 
encamp. On Friday night we reached the highest part of 
Bain's Kloof, and outspanned where indeed the place seemed 
lonely. Baboons, too, came in numbers to gaze at the first 



"WANDERJAHRE^* 51 

of our party who reached the spot, but they soon retired, 
and their chatter was succeeded by the merry laugh of our 
men as they surrounded the fire and cooked our evening 
meal. Ellen and I were detained a few days behind the rest 
in Cape Town, but came up to them after three days' 
travelling by ourselves. They started on the Tuesday and 
we on the Saturday. We met again on the following 
Wednesday. Waggon-travelling has not had the slightest 
injurious effect on Ellen — indeed she enjoys it quite as 
much as any of the others. We are all very busy while 
travelling. There is always something to do. Either we have 
to give the men their food, or sort something about the waggon, 
or get something cooked for ourselves. We have no time 
for writing letters. I am sorry for this, for almost every 
hour I see things which would be interesting if narrated. 
Ellen is also very sorry that she cannot write more to you 
and to all our dear relatives. We both hope, however, that 
we shall be able by and by to write more to you all. In the 
meantime don't let your pen rest, but send us many such 
letters as that which you sent from Portobello. 

We are now inspanning, i.e.^ inyoking our oxen. We reach 
Ceres to-night, and this must be posted there in order to 
reach Cape Town in time for the September mail. 

It is very hot, but we get some fine oranges at the farm- 
houses at the wayside, which are very pleasant and refreshing. 
Part of this letter was written under the shade of a 
bush, but my ink falling down the sloping bank, I changed 
my position and finished it in my waggon, which by the way 
we have named " Patience Lodge." 

From Beaufort, Mackenzie sent a letter to the 
Directors of the London Missionary Society, from 
which the following extracts are made : — 

Letjesbosch near Beaufort West, S.A., 
October 9, 1858. 

Mr Moffat, having interested himself in procuring waggons, 
oxen, etc., for the missionary party, left Cape Town on the 24th 
of August, accompanied by Mrs Moffat, Mr and Mrs John 
Moffat, Mrs Livingstone and sons, and Miss Jane Moffat, 
who is now returning from school in England. On the 31st 
of August Mr Helmore, with the three young brethren, 
started ; but Mrs Mackenzie, having exerted herself too much 



52 JOHN MACKENZIE 

in preparing for the journey, became quite unwell at this 
juncture, and, to the disappointment of both, the medical 
man would not allow us to leave with the others. On 
Saturday, the 4th of September, however, she had so far 
improved that he gave his consent to our starting, and we 
overtook Mr Helmore and party on the following Wednesday 
near Wellington. I am thankful to say that Mrs Mackenzie's 
health has continued good since commencing the journey, 
and I have no doubt but that with care and God's blessing 
it will continue so. 

I shall not attempt in this letter to describe either the 
country through which we have passed, or the details con- 
nected with our waggon-travelling. On the latter subject, I 
shall only say that an ox-waggon is not particularly adapted 
for letter-writing, nor is it quite the place in which one who is 
fond of reading would choose to live. However, it is just 
the thing for travelling in this country, and this is our great 
object at present. 

I am very sorry to say that the accounts which had reached 
England before our departure, concerning the high price and 
bad condition of oxen in this Colony were but too true. 
The oxen which were purchased for us at the Cape at a very 
high figure were, in general, miserable looking creatures, and 
as the event has proved, too weak for such a journey. We 
have not now half the number with which we started from 
Cape Town. One by one they have dropped down on the 
road, and in most cases we can do nothing with them in 
the way of doctoring them, for the disease generally is 
exhaustion. In the parched and barren Karroo great 
numbers have fallen, and all along the road there were 
evidences that travellers who had preceded us had been 
equally if not more unfortunate. In half-an-hour I have 
counted the skeletons of half-a-dozen oxen, as I sat on the 
front of my waggon, which vehicle, as you are aware, would 
not go over a great extent of ground in that space of time. 
At a place called Vlak Place, about eight days' journey from 
Beaufort, we held a consultation on the subject of our oxen, 
when it was found necessary to leave one-half of the waggons 
where they were, there being no oxen to pull them, while the 
other three should proceed to Beaufort and send back 
assistance. Mr Price, Mr Sykes, and I being worst off for 
oxen, it was thought fair that we should remain behind, while 
Mr Helmore's two waggons, with Mr Thomas's, should 



"WANDERJAHRE" 53 

proceed. However, Mr and Mrs Helmore, thinking it 
unadvisable that Mrs Mackenzie should remain, recom- 
mended that I should leave my waggon in charge of my 
brethren, and oifered us both a place in one of their 
waggons. Travelling thus we reached this place on Friday. 
I am now within a day or so of Beaufort. We have already 
purchased some oxen here, and hope that soon we shall be 
able to procure a sufficient number to send back for our 
brethren. They are pretty comfortably located beside a 
small river, and have a kind Boer in their vicinity, who will 
sell them sheep, etc., so with their own supplies there is not 
the slightest cause for anxiety. 

The state of affairs between the Dutch Boers beyond the 
Colony and some of the native tribes is very unsatisfactory, 
and at times alarming. We have heard lately that the 
Kuruman is not considered safe, by some who reside there, 
but we fondly hope that such fears will turn out to be 
groundless. By and by we shall have full information on 
this important subject, which we cannot procure here in the 
desert. 

At Victoria West the entire party were most 
generously received by a farmer in the neighbourhood. 
His brother had already given to Robert Moffat 
twenty-eight oxen to take him to Hope Town from 
Beaufort, of which only seventeen " were spared to 
return," as one correspondent quaintly expresses it. 
This farmer gave to Price and Mackenzie free pas- 
turage for their oxen as long as they stayed there. 
Thus they received their first pleasant experiences of 
the far-famed South African hospitality. Mackenzie 
arrived at Kuruman on the first day of the year 1859. 
On March ist he wrote a letter reporting the re- 
mainder of his journey, and surveying the whole of it. 

Kuruman, 1st March 1859. 

My former letter from Cape Town conveyed the intelli- 
gence of the safe and speedy termination of the first stage in 
our long journey. 

Had the second stage from Cape Town to Kuruman been 
equally prosperous with the first (we could not expect it to 
be so speedy), my present task had been both easy and 



54 JOHN MACKENZIE 

pleasant. As the case stands, however, I feel it will be 
necessary to enter into the details, so far as they affect me, 
of a journey which has been disastrous and protracted, and 
therefore expensive and unpleasant. 

I was detained a few days in Cape Town behind my 
brethren, on account of Mrs Mackenzie's health, which had 
been affected by her exertions in preparing for the journey. 
Starting on Saturday, the 4th September, we rejoined our 
friends on the 8th at a mountain pass called Bain's Kloof, a 
little beyond the town of Wellington. 

I found that already some of the oxen had died from 
sheer exhaustion ; in this pass more were added to this 
number ; and when we came to the entrance of the Karroo, 
seven oxen were sold for ;>£'i a head rather than bring them 
a little further, where we should only have got about half 
that sum for the hide. 

In the Karroo our loss was fearful. At that season there 
was next to nothing for the poor animals to eat, and being 
in most wretched condition when they came into our posses- 
sion, they daily fell down in the yoke unable to move 
another step. . . . 

At Beaufort we disposed of nearly all the Cape Town 
oxen on very fair terms, and purchased others which were 
fresh and in good condition. In dividing these oxen 
amongst ourselves, we endeavoured to equalise the strength 
of the six spans. 

It was thought advisable that Mr Sykes and I should 
travel together from Beaufort to Victoria, because at that 
time we both had white men as our drivers, who would not 
deign to sit at the same fire with their black brethren of the 
whip, but who being father and son, of course, agreed well 
enough at a fire by themselves. 

Mr Price and I accepted a kind invitation tendered to 
the whole party by some friends in Victoria West, to rest 
and feed our cattle there before entering the dry and sterile 
district between Victoria and Hope Town. A large house 
was placed at our disposal rent free, and pasture granted for 
our ©xen on the same easy terms. Our friends had only 
one request to make, to which we were happy to accede, 
viz. : that we should preach to them. We remained at this 
place, much to our own pleasure and the benefit of our oxen, 
rather more than a fortnight ; and after all reached Hope 
Town three days after two of our brethren. 



"WANDERJAHRE" 55 

At Hope Town we found the Black or Orange River im- 
passable at the ford eastward along the bank of the Orange 
River, until we reached the place where it is joined by the 
Vaal. There we crossed by means of a boat, emptying our 
waggons and taking them to pieces. 

While at Hope Town, reports of a very warlike character 
reached us concerning the movements of the Transvaal 
Boers. It was believed by the agent of our Government at 
Hope Town, as well as by other gentlemen who had means 
of obtaining intelligence concerning the movements of the 
Boers, that Kuruman was about to be attacked. On reach- 
ing Griqua Town, Mr P. and I rode on to Kuruman to see 
for ourselves the real state of matters, and to get the advice 
of our brethren concerning the propriety of bringing forward 
our waggons. Being satisfied that there was no immediate 
danger, we returned for our waggons, which we brought to 
Kuruman on the first day of 1859. 

As to the journey between Cape Town and Beaufort, it 
was managed entirely by Mr Helmore, who has no doubt 
advised you on the subject. 

I attribute the success of the latter part of my journey to 
our having good oxen to begin with ; to our travelling 
rapidly thro' the worst districts ; to our travelling chiefly 
at night; and to our separating at Beaufort into parties of 
two waggons each. 

As an incident of the journey, I may mention that while at 
Beaufort, I was invited to take charge of a church which the 
English-speaking population were desirous of having formed 
among them. A liberal salary was offered, guaranteed for 
five years, and other inducements held out. But my answer 
was ready, an answer which Mr Moffat had led them to 
expect when he passed through the place. In the full con- 
viction that my work lay further north, I had pleasure in 
advising with them as to procuring another, and in com- 
mending them to the care and blessing of God. 

The missionaries were soon engrossed in most 
earnest discussion of plans for the next stage of their 
journey. The plan as outlined was that Robert 
Moffat should accompany the missionaries to the 
Matabele tribe, these consisting of Messrs John S. 
Moffat, William Sykes, and Morgan Thomas. Along 



56 JOHN MACKENZIE 

with them would travel as far as possible those 
who were appointed to the Makololo Mission. The 
man of experience amongst these was the late 
Holloway Helmore, and with him were to go the 
late Roger Price and John Mackenzie. In the course 
of their deliberations Mackenzie formulated a plan 
which he submitted to the band, but which was 
rejected by them chiefly through the urgent dissuasions 
of Mr Helmore. This he describes in a letter to the 
Directors from which we have already quoted : — 

{is t March 1859.) 

As to the part of our journey still before us, we begin to 
perceive, with all the force which nearness lends, the reality 
of its difficulties. Our minds were formerly occupied with 
difficulties then present ; sufficient to those days were their 
evils ; but now we are at liberty fully to contemplate what we 
shall have to meet and contend with and through God's help 
to overcome, between Kuruman and the north bank of the 
Zambesi. 

After giving my best consideration to our position, it is my 
opinion that the Makololo brethren should, in the first place, 
make a " bachelor expedition " to Linyanti, get the Makololo 
to remove to some healthy locality on the north bank of the 
Zambesi, build temporary huts for ourselves and our goods, 
then retrace our steps to Kuruman for our wives and the 
remaining part of our goods. In the interim, if possible, 
leave with the people a native teacher who, along with our 
property left in their midst, would sufficiently attest that we 
were not " gulling " them. 

Of course, the greatest objection to this plan is that it 
would take so much time in the accomplishment. Now this 
is an objection ; but it has to be balanced against others 
connected with the bringing of females and children into that 
country in the present uncertain state of matters. From all 
I can learn from those who have lived long in this country, 
it is neither an easy nor a speedy matter to induce a native 
tribe to shift its quarters, without force, even after they 
have promised to do so. Again, the position in which 
the Makololo will be placed if they agree to our wishes will 
be right in the teeth of their enemies the Matabele, a cir- 



" WANDER] AHRE* 57 

cumstance which, notwithstanding all the assurances which 
may be advanced to them, will not at all tend to hasten 
their removal. Further, the deadliness of the climate forms 
in itself a strong reason why the health of females, and 
especially of children, should not be hazarded until we have 
the sure prospect, with the blessing of God, of there 
establishing a mission. 

The plans of the missionaries were much disturbed 
by the persistent rumours concerning the purpose and 
movements of the Transvaal Boers. M. W. Pretorius 
had but recently succeeded in reconciling warring 
factions and establishing the South African Republic, 
nearly six years after the Sand River Convention. 
In a recent message to his Raad he had given it as 
his decided opinion that the missionaries of the 
London Missionary Society had done and continued 
to do much harm amongst the natives ; and he asked 
his Raad to decide whether their continued labours 
and even their presence north of the Vaal River should 
be tolerated any longer. Pretorius acted on the 
theory that the Sand River Convention of 1852 had 
given over all the interior of South Africa to his 
people and government. The convenient phrase, 
" North of the Vaal River," was stretched by them 
very far westwards, and the spirit of the convention, 
as Dr Moffat in one of his letters pointed out, was 
interpreted by announcing to the chiefs in Bechuana- 
land that the Queen had handed them over to the 
Transvaal Government. Moffat received also a 
personal message from Pretorius, who was alarmed at 
the prospect of a large band of missionaries travelling 
through the interior to the Zambesi, in which he 
warned them not to begin their journey without 
express permission from himself. Rumours were sent 
flying across the country that the Boers intended to 
send an expedition westwards into South Bechuanaland, • 
early in 1859. The prospect was. so dark at one 
time that the Moffats sent a portion of their goods for 



58 JOHN MACKENZIE 

safety to Hope Town, and Mackenzie deemed it 
imperative to take his wife into the Orange Free State. 

Here it ought also to be recorded that Pretorius had 
formed the astute plan of settling German Missionaries 
in the interior to keep out and supplant the agents of 
the London Missionary Society. He succeeded in 
obtaining representatives of the famous Hermannsburg 
Mission, several of whom were already at work. If 
he had been successful in realising this plan he would 
have changed South African history profoundly. For 
German Missionaries, under the patronage of the 
Transvaal Government, would have made the interior 
of South Africa, Dutch or German permanently. 
Various events interfered with its success ; amongst 
these we must name as the most important a vigorous 
correspondence which was carried on with the officials 
of the German Society by the officials of the London 
Missionary Society, but most especially by Robert 
Moffat and John Mackenzie. These two sent repeated 
and powerful letters of expostulation and explanation. 
It is not too much to say that in this affair the 
missionaries took the first important steps towards 
opening South Central Africa to British supremacy ; 
which, as we shall see, they have done more than any 
other class of men to secure. 

In view of the expected Boer raid, and his wife's 
health, Mackenzie went in May 1859 to Fauresmith. 
While there he heard, in June, that his brethren were 
preparing for an immediate start northward. He at 
once set out on horseback, accompanied by the Rev. 
W. B. Philip of Philippolis, and rode to Kuruman 
across the country which he was destined to traverse 
so often many years afterwards. He found that Mr 
Helmore's warm and impulsive nature had led him to 
declare that he would begin his journey at once, and 
must take his family with him. This vigorous action 
of course determined the movements of the rest, 



"WANDERJAHRE" 59 

Mackenzie excepted. For him it was arranged 
that he should return as soon as possible to Kuru- 
man, remaining there in charge of the station, and 
follow with supplies in the next year. 

At Fauresmith on July i6th there was born to 
Mackenzie his eldest child and son. He returned 
to Kuruman in August, and settled down to his 
work until the middle of the following year. The chief 
part of this consisted in the mastery of the Sechuana 
language, and in making various tours among heathen 
villages and towns, for preaching the gospel. 

At length, on May 25th, i860, Mackenzie set out 
on his momentous journey to the Zambesi. The 
experiences which he encountered have been fully 
described by him in " Ten Years North of the Orange 
River." In that volume he gives six chapters to 
narrate his own movements, his minute and accurate 
observations of native customs — especially among the 
Bushmen — the fate of the mission party which he 
was attempting to reach, and the extinction of the 
Makololo, the very people among whom they had 
hoped to establish a new mission. It is unneces- 
sary to describe in any detail what he himself has 
recorded in these chapters.^ 

He tells us that he set out with four waggons, 
three horses, over seventy oxen and about a dozen 
men. Among his native servants, the most valuable 
was undoubtedly Mebalwe, the former servant of 
David Livingstone, who shared with him so bravely 
the dangers of the famous lion fight. It ought to 
be observed that, as the result of his method of 
organising the work of his servants, Mackenzie re- 
ports that his cattle did not stray once during all 
the months of their journeying. Mackenzie may 
be deemed especially fortunate in having crossed 
the desert regions, through which others passed 

^ "Ten Years North of the Orange River," chapters vii.-xii. 



6o JOHN MACKENZIE 

only at the cost of very great suffering and loss, 
without serious accident of any kind. This was due 
in very large measure to his own genius for organisa- 
tion, to the prudence with which he foresaw and 
prepared for emergencies, and the personal influence 
which he exercised even over complete strangers from 
whom he sought accurate information. 

As he passed through Bechuanaland, Mackenzie 
once more felt a deep surprise at seeing so many 
large native towns which were willing to receive a 
missionary, and to which none had been sent. The 
question arose more than once in his mind, whether it 
was wise to leave these regions with inadequate pro- 
vision in order to reach those distant tribes to which 
he himself was going. At Liteyana he for the first time 
saw the well-known chief Sechele, whom Mackenzie 
describes as the " finest specimen of the Bechuanas " ^ 
whom he had yet seen ; he was " tall and well made, 
with an open countenance, and unusually large eyes." 

On July 20th he found himself in Shoshong, where 
he was destined to spend so many years of his prime ; 
he found here a very large tribe gathered under a very 
able and quite unscrupulous chief named Sekhome. A 
German missionary had been at work there for a short 
time, by name Mr Schulenborg ; he had been very 
successful, having formed a school and the beginnings 
of an organised church ; among those whom he had 
baptised were the two sons of Sekhome, named Khame 
and Khamane. Here Mackenzie met Robert Moffat, 
on his way back from Matabeleland, who gave a 
very encouraging account of the reception given by 
Moselekatse to himself and the three young mission- 
aries ; this news made them both more eager to hear 
how it had fared with Helmore and Price on their 
more hazardous undertaking. In a few days Mac- 
kenzie started again, after making some careful plans 

^ *' Ten Years North of the Orange River," p. 105, 



'* WANDER] AHRE" 6i 

for " the great thirst land " which they were about 
to cross. We must content ourselves with insert- 
ing here a letter in which, on his return to Shoshong, 
Mackenzie described to the Directors of the London 
Missionary Society the dreary result of all the plans 
and efforts to establish the Makololo Mission. 

Bamangwato, \th Dec.^ i860. 
Rev. Dr Tidman. 

Rev. and Dear Sir, — This note is written in a great 
haste in order that it may be sent with some travellers who 
leave this town to-day. I must, therefore, compress into a 
few lines an account of my journey from the date of my 
leaving this place in the end of July last. 

Between Kanne and Nchokotsa there lies a most trying 
country for travellers. The waters are far apart, and deep 
sand intervenes. However, on Tuesday the 7th August we 
reached Nchokotsa without knowing what thirst was, and 
the oxen all right. From Nchokotsa we struck out towards 
the north, spent Sabbath, 12th August, at Koobe, and on 
the following Saturday reached Maila. After leaving 
Nchokotsa we had employed guides, the " spoor " being 
indistinct and often at night not traceable. When I asked 
men to go forward from Maila to Kamakama, neither 
Makalaka nor Bushmen would consent, I pleaded with 
them, but they shook their heads, and pointing in the 
direction of the places I had named, said, " There, there is 
no water. Nothing but sun, nothing but sun. Your oxen 
will be scattered and yourselves subjected to thirst in the 
desert as were the Makoas of last year." This was the first 
intimation I had received concerning the sufferings endured 
by my brethren who had preceded me, which have not their 
equal in the history of African missions, nor indeed in the 
history of African travel, so far as I am acquainted with it. 
Of course I could not think of returning, nor yet of lying 
still, the rainy season being still distant. I resolved, there- 
fore, to try to reach the Makololo country by some other 
route. On questioning the Makalaka and the Bushmen, the 
former offered to lead me into a road to the eastward formed 
by hunters, by which I might reach the Makololo country. 
This road leading to the S.-E. from Maila instead of to the 
N. or N.-W., as I desired, my men and myself had consider- 



62 JOHN MACKENZIE 

able misgivings, but still, as the teacher Mebalwe remarked, 
one does not mind travelling by a roundabout road, provided 
it has water on it. I therefore engaged two Makalaka, and 
made ready to start. On Monday, before we were quite 
ready to leave Maila, Mokantsa, the son of Horoi, and a 
party of his Bushmen arrived "to greet us before our 
departure." A Bushman having the previous evening hinted 
that they knew a better road than that which I was about to 
take, I was very anxious that I should hear the merits of the 
two routes fairly stated, and therefore called all the Makalaka 
and Bushmen together, and, addressing myself to the two 
chiefs Mokantsa and Putse, offered them a reward if they 
would show me a nearer and better road than the one to the 
east. There followed a discussion among themselves, when 
Mokantsa offered to show me another lying a little to the 
west of that taken by my brethren. He counted on his 
fingers the number of valleys on the road containing water, 
and the number of wells having water sufficient for people 
but not for oxen, and mentioned last of all " the great river 
of the Makololo." We all thought we had now found the 
right road, and I thanked God, to whom I had repaired in 
this dilemma, for having thus assisted me. For some time 
after leaving Maila we kept the track of my brethren, but on 
the second day directed our course more to the west. The 
suspicion began to grow on me that the Bushmen were 
deceiving us, and this was confirmed when, after travelling 
three days, we found none of those waters to which they had 
promised to guide us. At last we reached a well, which we 
opened up after a whole day's work. On asking where the 
next valley was the Bushmen said, " the next water was the 
great river, and that it lay due west." This I was sure could 
not be the Mababe ; however, the question then was not how 
to reach the Makololo, but how to save the oxen by obtain- 
ing water for them. On Monday, 27th August, we reached 
a river which we found to be the Zouga, and not the Mababe. 
I beheld it with mingled feelings of thankfulness and dis- 
appointment, thankfulness that the oxen were saved, and 
disappointment that I was as far from the Makololo as when 
I was at Maila. However, I had now a river system before 
me, by the aid of which I hoped to reach the Makololo 
without risk to the oxen from thirst. The tsetse was my only 
obstacle, and I hoped to be able to secure guides who would 
be able to direct me how to avoid the districts infested by 



IX 



"WANDERJAHRE" 63 

this destructive insect. I did not know then that a good 
Providence had brought me to the Zouga for special reasons. 
At Maila an old Bushman who had just arrived from Mababe 
was brought to me by the chief Putse to " tell me the news." 
The latter said, "Perhaps what he has to tell you is lies, per- 
haps it is truth. At anyrate I thought it my duty to bring him 
to you before you go forward to the country from which he 
has just come." The news was to the effect that Sekeletu 
had killed all the white people who had gone to them, and 
had taken their property. Of course, L laughed at the old 
man, being convinced Sekeletu was not the man to do such 
a thing. When we reached the Zouga, we met with a party 
of Lechulatebe's people going up the river in a boat. They 
told me the same tale — " all the white men were killed but 
one man and two children, who, they said, were now at 
Lechulatebe's." Knowing that the Batowana and the Makololo 
were enemies, I never heeded them. I viewed the story as 
one got up for the purpose of inducing me to turn aside to 
their master, instead of going to their enemy, Sekeletu. My 
men also were of the same opinion as myself, altho' we 
were all horrified to think that death should be so lightly 
spoken of by them and thus introduced without compunction 
into a story got up to serve their own ends. The four men 
left me for the lake, saying that they had never seen such a 
" hard-headed white man," assuring me at the same time that 
they would acquaint my friend of my arrival, and that they 
had no doubt I should soon receive a letter from him. I 
proceeded up the river, cherishing good hopes that I would 
soon reach the Makololo country. Although we heard the 
same dreadful story of the death of my friends at every 
village, neither I nor my men believed it. Their perseverance 
in the same story, after I had assured them I had got no 
ammunition for sale, we attributed to the strictness of their 
orders to allow no white man to pass to the Makololo. The 
history of Lechulatebe's dealings with Livingstone tended to 
confirm me in this view of the matter. 

On Saturday, the 8th Sept., while we were moving along 
the river's bank, I beheld a party of men coming from the 
river and directing their course to the first waggon, which 
they stopped. On going forward and demanding their reason 
for stopping my waggon, the chief man answered that he 
came from the king and had brought boats to cross my 
goods over the river. I told him to be off about his business, 



64 JOHN MACKENZIE 

that I did not intend to go to Lechulatebe's and therefore 
did not need his boats. " But I have brought the white man 
with me, your brother, the son of your own father." I 
answered, " Where is he then ? How can you tell lies so ? 
If you brought the white man to meet me, why do you come 
without him ? " " Because he is sick and tired and remained 
in the boat." I did not believe the fellow, and therefore 
answered, " I will go on just as I intended ; if you have got 
the white man, bring him to the place where we shall sleep, 
and where we shall rest to-morrow (Sunday) and then I shall 
believe you." The waggons accordingly went on. About 
sunset we drew near to the outspanning place. It was a 
beautiful, well-wooded spot, and the river gave a life and 
freshness to the prospect which those alone can appreciate 
who have toiled through the riverless, almost waterless, deserts 
of South Africa. I shall not attempt to describe my anxiety 
on nearing this place. Could it, after all, be true that my 
dear friends had thus been swept away ? I went on with the 
first waggon, engrossed in anxious thought, when the driver 
said to me, in a tone which made me start, " Ki ena" (" It is 
he "). I sprang from the waggon, and went forward to meet 
some one who, I could see thro' the trees, was a European. 
At length I saw it was my dear friend, Mr Price. " But can 
it be that all this which I hear is true ? " I hurriedly asked, 
almost before I had grasped his hand. Alas ! I saw what the 
answer would be before I heard it. " All is true." And then 
I had to break the news to Mrs Mackenzie that her beloved 
fellow-labourers, Mrs Helmore and Mrs Price, were no more. 
O, indeed, it was a] trying hour ! Hopes which had cheered 
us during our long journey were now dashed to the ground, 
and high pictures which had often filled our minds with 
pleasure now gave place to one gloomy scene of desolation 
and of death. We sat down and wept for those who were 
not. Our men betokened their sympathy by their countenances, 
and the simple Makoba stood around witnessing the scene. 
Mr Price was very unwell \ not at all the healthy person he 
used to be. His mind was also affected, for he would tell us 
the same thing twice in a very short time. He was holding 
Wednesdays as Sundays when we met him. 

The following are the harrowing details of the mission 
at Linyante. Mr and Mrs Helmore and Mr and Mrs Price 
with their families arrived at Linyante on the 14th of Feb- 
ruary. On the 2nd of March, Malatsi, Mr Price's driver. 



"WANDERJAHRE" 65 

died ; and on the 3rd the whole party were taken ill, with 
the exception of Mr and Mrs Price and one servant. On 
the 7th inst. Henry Helmore died, and on the 9th Mr Price's 
infant daughter. Selina Helmore was next called away on 
the nth inst., and on the same day Tabe, the highly- 
respected deacon from Likatlong, breathed his last. Next 
day Mrs Helmore died. Before her death she said she 
believed her work on earth was done, and that she had no 
desire to live longer. On the Sabbath following their arrival 
Mr Helmore preached to the people in the chiefs court, and 
went also for the same purpose on the Sunday following. 
He was taken ill, however, while in the town, and returned 
to the waggons, unable to conduct the afternoon service. 
At the time Mrs Helmore died he was very ill, unable to 
rise from his bed. Some time after this he got better, and 
was able to go about a little, leaning on a staff. However, 
a relapse took place, and on the 22nd of April he followed 
his partner and two children. Another servant, an old man, 
also died in March, when so many were swept away ; the 
exact date I am not able to give. Mr and Mrs Price were 
also very ill in March, and also afterwards ; but, as God 
mercifully ordered it, the two were never very ill at the same 
time. One or the other was thus able to minister to the 
others, and they were the only persons able and willing to 
do so. Mr Price was lying in a wet sheet, hardly able to 
stand through exhaustion, when his infant breathed its last 
in its mother's arms. In the language of a Mochuana who 
has returned with Mr Price, they were all scattered about, 
white people and black, those in their tents and these on the 
ground outside, like logs of wood, unable to help themselves, 
and indeed, many of them in a deep stupor from which it was 
difficult to rouse them to consciousness. Mr and Mrs Price 
had resolved to leave before Mr Helmore's death, but after 
that event, feeling their increased responsibility, they were 
still more anxious to return. They left Linyante on June 
26th. The Makololo did not allow them to cross their river 
until they had taken openly, or secretly stolen, almost every 
thing in the waggons. Mr Helmore's new waggon Sekeletu 
claimed as his, and all Mr Helmore's things ; then Mr and 
Mrs Price's things were taken, they with the utmost difficulty 
obtaining clothing barely sufficient for the journey south. 
After they had crossed the Mababe they began to breathe 
freely again and to feel they were at last beyond the reach of 



66 JOHN MACKENZIE 

those who had so cruelly used them. On the 5th of July, 
however, Mrs Price died, after they had just begun to enter- 
tain hopes of regaining a more healthy country and more 
friendly people. Her body was laid in a grave in the wide 
African wilderness ; her soul, we humbly yet confidently 
hope, is in the Paradise of God. 

I crossed the Zouga and went on with Mr Price in my 
waggon to Lechulatebe's at the Lake, leaving behind me the 
head waggon till our return. We m.et Lizzie and Willie 
Helmore at Lechulatebe's, it being impossible for Mr Price 
to take them with him in the boat. After preaching on 
Sunday, 22nd Sept., at Lechulatebe's, on returning to our 
waggons, I found my little boy ill with fever. Thro' God's 
blessing on the means used, the fever was checked. But we 
hastened our departure, after purchasing 9 oxen for Mr Price. 

For a long time my child was ill, feverish symptoms con- 
stantly reappearing. One of the lads also took the fever 
after our return to the waggons which we left behind us, but 
he also recovered. These were the only cases of African 
fever I have witnessed. After prayerfully considering our 
position, we resolved to return with Mr Price and await fresh 
orders from the Directors, and accordingly began our trek 
down the river. 

I must now conclude this hurried note. Mr Price would 
have written to you, but having the heavy task to perform of 
writing to his deceased wife's relatives as well as Mr Helmore's 
for the first time after these sad events, he has requested me 
to acquaint you with the circumstances of the Mission. 

1. The chief men of the Makololo on several occasions 
stated their entire disinclination to remove to the north of 
the Zambesi. Sekeletu, Mameri, Motibi and others were 
unanimous in this. They said if they removed anywhere it 
would be to dispossess Lechulatebe of the Lake country. 

2. The Mambari slave-dealers seem to have got a firm 
footing among them, and are received as friends, and feasting 
continues as long as they remain. The Mambari have evi- 
dently endeavoured to poison the Makololo mind against 
Livingstone, as they told our brethren they believed the 
Doctor was not now a Missionary but a ruler. 

3. Mr Price and all the Bechuana servants believe that 
poison was administered to their party by the Makololo. 
This they ascertained from a man of influence who is always 
near the king. 



" WANDERJ AHRE " ej 

4. Almost everything taken in by Mr Helmore and Mr 
Price has been stolen by the Makololo — waggon, guns, tents, 
boxes of clothing, etc. The last action performed by Mr 
Price's Makololo guides was to take him, on his way south, 
into a district full of tsetse, where his oxen were all bitten, 
and out of forty he has now only two ! The guides ran away 
after they were fairly into the tsetse. 

5. Much of the mischief done by stealing may be traced 
to the counsels of a servant of Tabe's named Mahoosi — a 
person whose very meat and drink seemed to be to create 
ill-feeling among the Makololo towards the Mission. He 
urged them to steal and even to kill every white person in the 
party. 

6. The Makololo country can hardly be said to be acces- 
sible by the Kamakama road. It will always be a feat to 
reach it by that route. There is always plenty of water by 
way of the Lake, but the tsetse is on the road, and can only be 
avoided by the help of faithful guides belonging to the district. 
There is a road to the east of the Nchokotsa and Kamakama 
one, now used by hunters, which, I think, would turn out on 
the whole the best one. 

7. Mr Price goes as far as the Cape with Mr Helmore's 
children, according to his promise before Mr Helmore's death. 
I returned with Mr Price feeling, that I would not be 
warranted to go on with waggon-loads of goods after what 
had happened. I have now laid the matter before you, and 
conclude with the question, " What am I to do ? " 

We are all pretty well in health. Mr Price and Mrs 
Mackenzie unite with me in Christian regards. 

Before Mackenzie's letter reached England rumours 
of the terrible disaster v^hich it described had already 
arrived ; consternation spread far and w^ide in missionary 
circles, and a great deal of public criticism was now 
directed upon the entire plan and the mode of carrying 
it out. The original idea had been that the missionaries 
should arrive on the Zambesi at a time when Dr Living- 
stone expected to arrive there by way of the East Coast 
and the Zambesi River. It was to him that Sekeletu 
had given his promise to transfer the entire tribe to the 
higher and healthier districts on the north bank of the 
Zambesi River, if missionaries were brought to him. 



li 



68 JOHN MACKENZIE 

When the missionaries reached him without Living- 
stone, and Livingstone owing to unexpected detentions 
did not arrive until after the rainy season, Sekeletu did 
not show himself as cordial as had been expected ; he 
was unwilling, naturally, to leave a position of great 
military advantage, although unhealthy, in order to 
settle in a place where he would be open to the 
attacks of his inveterate enemies, the Matabele. The 
inhospitable treatment which he gave to the missionaries 
stands out with unpleasant distinction in the history 
of the relations of missionaries to South African 
chiefs. Mackenzie has described ^ the destruction of 
the Makololo tribe which blotted this name from the 
map of Africa. 

The Foreign Secretary of the London Missionary 
Society, Dr Arthur Tidman, wrote on April 5 th, 
1 86 1, to Mackenzie as follows: — 

London, April ^th^ 1861. 

Under all circumstances, there is plainly no alternative but \ 
to relinquish the Makololo Mission for the present, and we 
consider you were fully justified in deciding to return to the 
South. 

Until there has been an opportunity of conferring with the 
Directors on the whole case, I should scarcely feel prepared 
to indicate the course it may be incumbent upon you to 
pursue ; but it is more than probable that you and Mr Price 
will be recommended to direct your attention to the Matabele 
Mission. In the meantime you will be able, while at the 
Kuruman, to take counsel with Mr Moffat on the subject, 
and I hope by an early opportunity to convey to you more | 
definite instructions. 

On 23rd December, there was born at Shoshong, 
Mackenzie's second child, a son, whose arrival was 
hailed with great delight by the natives of the town. 
As this was the first white child born in that town, 
by general consent the Bamangwato gave him the 
name Mangwato, by which he was ever afterwards 
^ "Ten Years North of the Orange River," pp. 243-248. 



" WANDERJAHRE " 69 

known amongst the inhabitants of that country. It 
may be added that the eldest child having been called 
William, and usually Willie, his father and mother 
were named after him, according to the Bechuanaland 
custom. To this day Mackenzie and his wife are 
known in Bechuanaland as Ra- Willie and Ma-Willie 
respectively ; in the same manner Khame himself, 
whose eldest child was called Bessie, is known amongst 
his own people as Ra-Bessie. 

After a brief stay at Shoshong, Mackenzie and 
Price, who was very slowly recovering his health, 
set out for the south. Both were much cheered by 
the announcement that their friends in Cape Town 
had set on foot a public subscription for the relief of 
the surviving members of the Mission. This relief was 
carried to them by Mr Moffat, who met them on their 
way to Kuruman. 

Mackenzie once more arrived at Kuruman, after one 
of the most prolonged and trying experiences of waggon 
life which have fallen to the lot of any but the pioneer 
Dutchmen of South Africa. 

Kuruman, Feb. 29, 1861. 

Rev. Dr Tidman, 

Rev. and Dear Sir, — Again I address you from this 
station. My journey into the interior is a thing of the past. 
The waggons are unloaded, the men paid off, and we are 
again enjoying the grateful shelter of a house. We have also 
had the pleasure of again meeting those Christian friends 
who, I at least thought, had been parted with for ever. 

My last letter recorded the leading events connected with 
my journey up to the date of our arrival at the Bamangwato. 
I shall now resume that record. Our stay at the Bamangwato 
extended over six weeks. On the 23rd December, Mrs 
Mackenzie was safely delivered of a son in the home of 
Mr Schulenborg. Altho' this residence had neither doors 
nor windows, it had a good roof; and if it caused rather than 
prevented a draught, it was delightfully cool, and was, be- 
sides, the hospitable home of kind Christian friends, whose 
attentions we shall always gratefully remember. Our oxen 



70 JOHN MACKENZIE 

having in the meantime considerably improved in condition, 
on the third week after the event just recorded, we pursued 
our journey towards Kuruman, reached a place called Silinye 
on the 19th, and on Monday, the 21st of January, we met 
with Mr Moffat, who was on his way to look for us, and, if 
necessary, assist us. Finding all whom he was seeking, he 
turned his waggons towards home, and next day we went on 
together. 

In passing Sechele's town, that chief showed us great kind- 
ness, and agreed that his waggon, which I had formerly hired, 
should go on to Kuruman, the only additional charge being 
that I should repaint the waggon and make for it a new 
sail, the material of which he gave me. I have pleasure in 
mentioning anything like a disinterested action among a 
people dreadfully selfish. 

My mind naturally turns to the future. Altho' an invisible 
shield seems to have been round both me and mine, and 
altho' I make no claim to having endured anything very 
severe, yet nine months loose, gipsy, waggon-life does not 
leave one with much relish for that way of spending one's 
time. I wait for that Hand to guide me to some sphere of 
usefulness, as it has hitherto led me and sustained me. I 
do not forget that I left my native land as a missionary to 
Central South Africa. Altho' the Mission to the Mokololo 
has proved so disastrous, there is a teeming population to 
the eastward, in that district recently discovered by Dr 
Livingstone, and you are aware what hopes the Doctor has 
held forth to the Mission presided over by Archdeacon 
Mackenzie. It seems to me that there is a greater prospect 
of success in a Mission to some of these tribes approachable 
from the sea-coast than there ever was in connection with the 
Mission to the Makololo. Should the Directors resolve to 
continue their efforts for the evangelisation of Central Africa, 
I am quite willing to devote myself to the work. I think the 
Mission to the north of the Zambesi has hardly received a 
fair trial, there being high, all but insurmountable, obstacles 
in connection with the Makololo. If the Directors resolve 
to give it such a trial, and consider that I can be of service 
to them in the attempt, they may depend upon me to the 
utmost of my ability. It might take some time to establish such 
a Mission on a permanent basis ; but if an agent or two were 
directed to visit the country and to feel their way quietly, it is not 
improbable that success might ultimately attend their efforts. 



" WANDERJAHRE " 71 

In the meantime I shall endeavour to do the work of a 
missionary among the Bechuanas while waiting for further 
instructions. — Yours sincerely, John Mackenzie. 

Early in 1861 Mrs Mackenzie was attacked by a 
prolonged fever of a low and intermittent type. As a 
journey was itself on almost all occasions the best cure 
which Mackenzie could discover for this African fever, 
he resolved to go across to Fauresmith. While there 
he was once more confronted with the temptation to 
enter upon ministerial service in other directions. He 
received a very pressing call to the pastorate of the 
church at Hope Town. None of these proposals, 
although he frankly and earnestly considered them, 
presented any real attraction to him ; his eye was still 
on the interior of the continent, and his mind was set 
upon pioneer work. The Directors of the Society were 
themselves in great uncertainty, and found themselves 
unable for a considerable time to give him a definite 
appointment. During the remainder of 1861, he was 
at Kuruman, diligently engaged in educational and 
literary work ; he completed a school book on geo- 
graphy in the Sechuana language, and also wrote and 
printed a translation of Dr Newman Hall's famous 
booklet, " Come to Jesus." It was not until May 
1 86 1 that he received from the Directors a definite 
appointment to the station at Shoshong, and this was 
made under the impression, which turned out to be 
false, that the German missionary had left the place. 

Kuruman, 12 May, 1862. 

Rev. Dr Tidman, 

Dear Brother, — I have to acknowledge receipt of 
yours of Feb. 5, recommending me to commence a Mission 
among the Bamangwato, in the event of Mr Price having 
gone to the Matabele. 

Since the receipt of your letter one thing is now settled in 
my mind, viz., that the Interior of Africa is to be the scene of 
my future labours. I am thankful after a season of perplexity 
to see my way thus far. 



72 JOHN MACKENZIE 

It will be necessary, however, to explain that this appoint- 
ment has been given by the Directors while labouring under 
a mistake. I see by the March Chronicle that Mr Moffat 
advises the step which you have taken, among other reasons, 
because Mr Schulenborg was not returning to the Bamangwato. 
Now the reports to which Mr Moffat refers turned out, as 
most reports of the kind do in this country, to be without 
foundation. Mr Schulenborg has not rejoined his Society, 
and has returned to the Bamangwato, with the intention of 
living and labouring there. Knowing the facts of the case 
before the arrival of your letter, I was, of course, amused to 
see that while you could not agree to my going to the East 
Coast for fear of encroaching upon a district occupied by 
English Episcopalians and Scotch Free Churchmen, it should 
so happen that you were actually setting me down at the 
same Bechuana Town with a Hanoverian Lutheran ! There 
can only be one opinion as to the importance of the 
Bamangwato District, both on account of its great popula- 
tion and its position. Had it been unoccupied by other 
missionaries as you were led to believe, there could not have 
been a wiser appointment. 

As matters stand I feel I cannot regard myself as missionary 
to the Bamangwato, and I am sure the Directors, when they 
know the facts of the case, would not wish me to do so. 
Were the Bamangwato the last heathen town in Africa the 
case would be different ; two or more Societies might en- 
compass the last abode of heathenism in order to hasten the 
progress of the Gospel : but the case, alas, is very different. 
There are vast regions beyond the Bamangwato which are 
the abodes of cruelty and degradation. Into these countries 
it was the object of the Society to introduce the Gospel, by 
the formation of the Makololo Mission. Adverse events, 
linked together with singular fatality, baffled this endeavour. 
But I am glad to find from the postscript of your last letter, that 
the Directors still cherish the desire to introduce the Gospel 
into these places, and thus to reward the evil received at the 
hands of the inhabitants with the highest good. It was and 
is my opinion that efforts to this end could be best carried 
on from the East Coast. But such, I learn from your letter, 
is not the opinion of the Directors. I cheerfully acquiesce 
in their decision. Of course nothing must be done hastily, 
nothing without due consideration. 

Let me state to the Directors what I propose to myself to 



" WANDER] AHRE" 73 

accomplish in dependence on God's guidance and blessing. 
Regarding my appointment to the Bamangwato as not likely 
to be permanent, I look on some of the regions beyond as my 
parish, accepting at the same time as my motto, "Festina lente." 

I propose to go forward to the Bamangwato with the 
intention of staying there for a time, and, should a favourable 
opportunity occur, eventually to proceed farther. I hope and 
believe this will meet with the views of the Directors. I 
have written somewhat fully that they may perfectly under- 
stand my position. The first thing I hope to accomplish 
and which will be of service to the Society at all events, is 
this. With the assistance of Mr Herbst the missionary 
artizan at Bamangwato, I intend to build a small but sub- 
stantial house which, in the event of my departure for the 
Interior, can be used as a store-room for the use of my 
brethren as well as for my own. This plan was talked of 
before we went into the Interior and the advantages of 
having such a place are quite apparent. 

When the traveller is going to the Lake, to the Victoria 
Falls, or to Moselekatse's Country, he passes the Bamangwato. 
Thus hunters and others could bring supplies so far, no 
matter to what part of the Interior they were going ; after- 
wards it would be easy for the brethren in the Interior to 
send to the Bamangwato for such supplies. 

While at the Bamangwato, I shall be able to command the 
news of the Interior, so that I could not be in a better 
position to perform the duties of a " scout." It will be my 
endeavour as early as possible to open communications with 
the Makololo and should I hear favourable reports I shall 
pay them a visit. I would count it a great pleasure to tell 
them that we owe them no grudge, but pity them and desire 
their welfare. Should the door to the Makololo seem still 
to be shut, and no inducement held out to increase the 
number of the Matabele labourers, I might visit Lechulatebe 
to see if there were no healthy site for a Mission in his 
district, which would certainly be a splendid field for a 
missionary. Lechulatebe expressed his willingness to receive 
a missionary while I was there with Mr Price. 

At the same time, I hope to do good among the 
Bamangwato. The Directors will be glad to learn, that 
judging from our past intercourse, there are grounds for 
beheving that Mr Schulenborg and myself are likely to get 
on well together. I have no doubt as to our getting on as 



74 JOHN MACKENZIE 

friends, as neighbours, and as preachers of the Gospel ; as 
pastors I am afraid we could not see eye to eye. 

Such, my dear Brother, are the plans which occurred to my 
mind, and which I beg thus to communicate to the Directors. 
I ask their confidence and their prayers ; let me work as it 
were in private ; it may be the Lord will open up my way to 
the Makololo. At all events, wherever I am I shall endeavour 
to carry with me a savour of Jesus Christ. , 

Let me in conclusion state, for the information of the \ 
Directors, what has occupied my attention while in the 
Kuruman District and while awaiting their further orders. 
We returned from Philippolis and Fauresmith in August, 
after Mrs Mackenzie's recovery from fever. In October 
we visited the various sub-stations to the south-west of 
Kuruman situated among the Long Mountains (Langberg). 
In December I was at Hope Town, from which I addressed 
my last letter to you. In January I visited the Taungs 
District, partly in company with Mr Ross ; and in February 
I visited Morokweng, a large town of Barolong, situated on 
the edge of the Kalahari Desert, and occasionally visited by 
Mr Fredoux of the Motito. During the interval between 
these journeys I taught a Geography Class and an English 
Class at Kuruman, taking also my turn in preaching. I drew 
up a First Book on Geography for the use of schools, and 
also set up the types of most of it. I also translated "Come 
to Jesus " into Sechuana, the MS. of which I have left with 
Mr Moffat, who has kindly agreed along with Mr Ashton to 
see it through the press. 

When Mackenzie arrived at Shoshong in June, he 
found Mr Schulenborg still at work, and with no 
intention of leaving. Price, who had been refused 
entrance to Matabeleland, was also there trying to 
co-operate as well as possible, with his Lutheran 
brother. In these circumstances Mackenzie could 
not but regard his appointment at Shoshong as 
temporary and tentative, and his mind became 
employed upon fresh plans for reopening communi- 
cations with the Makololo. But in the meantime, he 
entered as earnestly as possible into the missionary j 
work of the place. He and his family lived in a 



"WANDERJAHRE" 75 

small two-roomed hut which had been built by- 
Mr Schulenborg at the very entrance of the kloof 
or narrow gorge below which the town was built. 
At the close of the year another letter arrived from 
the Directors, showing that they were still uncertain 
about Mackenzie's movements. They were carrying 
on negotiations with the German sister Society, 
which they hoped would secure to them the exclu- 
sive right to work in Bechuanaland ; hence, while 
they did not disapprove of Mackenzie's attempts to 
reach the Zambesi, they expressed their own desire 
to establish other missions more broadly and thoroughly 
in Bechuanaland, and their attention was especially 
directed to the country of the Bamangwato. They 
intended as soon as possible to send out more mission- 
aries for this purpose. The following letter to his friend 
James Ross states a number of these points clearly : — 

Bamangwato, South Africa, 
i^th Dec. 1862. 

My Dear Jamie, — When you wrote to me last you 
promised to send me another letter soon. I have waited 
long, but the promised epistle comes not. It seems strange 
not to know your address, not to know what you are doing, 
except generally that you are preaching the Gospel some- 
where in Scotland. However I have myself neglected many 
promises as to corresponding, so that I am not in a position 
to find fault. 

I found out from an Elgin paper that you were in Inver- 
ness. I thought you might stay there ; but I learn from John 
Douglas that you are, or were lately, at Linlithgow. I am 
glad you have some knocking about at the outset ; I should 
think it will enable you to pursue a course of general study 
with less effort than if you were fairly wedged into one pulpit, 
and bound to preach service after service to a congregation 
which you had "taken for better or for worse." It would be 
a good thing if you could extend your rambles beyond Scot- 
land. Live for a short time in England, and if possible, on 
the continent. I'm not joking: take in stock, " everydiing 
in the line," and your services are likely tb have a freshness 
and point which reading alone is not likely to give them. 



je JOHN MACKENZIE 

You see I advise with the same Hberty as when we went arm- 
in-arm along Lossie Bank. 

As for myself, I am still " going to and fro " and (not 
walking) but tumbling " up and down " the southern part 
of this continent. Next time I write, however, will I hope, 
be from the north bank of the Zambesi. We leave this 
place in April next, and hope to cross the river, proceed 
to the site of our future station, which we must previously 
select, and erect some sort of house before next hot season 
comes on. We have tsetse^ the Zambesi, and an unexplored 
country to the north, to pass through before we reach our 
destination ; but I don't think we shall " stick." The physical 
difficulties, although not to be despised, are nothing to the 
moral obstacles which await us as missionaries to the 
Makololo. This tribe has obtained its position by a sort 
of Ishmaelite warfare : of late it has retreated to a natural 
stronghold formed by a river system on the one hand, by 
tsetse on the other. From this unhealthy den of Linyanti 
they have carried on their forays with impunity, have taken 
prisoners and sold them to the Mambari traders from the 
coast. Of course you know the sad history of the late 
attempts to open a mission among these marauders. In the 
interval Sekeletu and his people have been frequently visited 
by natives from the South ; and I think by one English 
trader. From these parties they have learned enough to 
cause them to regret having taken the missionaries' property 
from them. As to the charge of poisoning those who died 
at Linyanti, they firmly deny it, and I give them credit for 
speaking the truth, for I never believed that my fellow- 
labourers were poisoned. When the hunters and traders 
went in this season, Mr Price and Mr Moffat and myself 
sent in a joint letter to Sekeletu, asking him if he would 
allow us to go direct to a place called Tabachow (or White 
Mountain) on the north of the Zambesi, and if he and his 
people would join us there. We have just received the 
answer, which is more favourable than we expected. He 
consents to everything, and urges us to hasten our coming. 
He is ill, and expects to be benefited by the white man's 
medicines. The people also are tired of the unhealthy place 
where they now are, and express their willingness to follow 
their chief and live with missionaries. It is said by all that 
the country to which we are going is not unhealthy, but of 
course this means, when compared with adjacent districts. 



W 



*' WANDERJAHRE " ^7 

We go to try it, looking to God for His blessing and presence. 
May we trust in Him with our whole heart, while we take 
every precaution necessary in the circumstances. Pray for 
us that the Gospel may have free course and be glorified in 
Central Africa. 

We have been staying here for some months, having our 
eye on the North, and waiting the proper time to come round. 
This is a large town, too large for one missionary. It is at 
present supplied with a missionary who came to this country 
in connection with Pastor Harms's Society. I had an appoint- 
ment to this place, which of course became null through his 
presence here. 

I suppose you know that my third child was born on the 
23rd September last. Since I began this letter, I had occa- 
sion to go for a short distance on horseback, so I took Willie 
before me on the saddle. I sometimes ride with Johnnie also 
behind me. Mrs Mackenzie is quite well, and sends her love 
to you. Not knowing your address, I have sent this to John 
Douglas. I thought there was no harm in doing this, especially 
as I have not entered on any private topic. . . . My paper 
fails me ! 

Affection and remembrances to the auld folks at Elgin, and 
to our mutual friends in Edinburgh. Send me something 
frequently ; an old newspaper will be new to me, and will only 
cost you a penny, and the time spent in addressing it. Write 
at once. — Ever yours affectionately, John Mackenzie. 

The year 1862 proved another year of travel and 
uncertainty to Mackenzie. On January 24th he wrote 
a letter to Dr Tidman describing the negotiations 
which were proceeding with regard to the occupancy 
of Shoshong as a Mission Station by the Hermanns- 
burg Society. Mr Schulenborg, their representative, 
had gone on a journey to Natal, the South African 
headquarters of that society, and Mackenzie was 
occupying his little hut of two rooms in his absence. 
And Mackenzie had written a long letter to Dr 
Hardeland, the Superintendent of the Hermannsburg 
Mission, explaining the policy of the London Mis- 
sionary Society there, and urging that the German 



78 JOHN MACKENZIE 

Society should not send representatives to settle in 
the heart of a sphere already partly occupied by, and 
already fully mapped out for the agents of the London 
Missionary Society. In his letter to Dr Tidman 
Mackenzie added the following paragraph : — 

I feel tempted to criticise the policy which overlooked as 
a site for a Mission Station such a central and in every way 
important place as the Bamangwato. What it is to-day it has 
been for more than twenty years. But there would seem to 
be some impediment in the way of the vigorous prosecution 
of Mission effort among the Bechuanas. Where are the two 
Missionaries who were to be sent out two years ago to rein- 
force the Southern District of Bechuanaland ? It would be 
useless to recapitulate the reasons for this re-inforcement 
which approved themselves to the minds of the Directors at 
the time. I may just mention, however, that a late personal 
inspection of the country indicated deepens my own impres- 
sions of the desirabiHty of such re-inforcements, and further, 
that if the matter were left to the decision of your agents on 
the spot, there would be no voices raised against a more 
vigorous policy on the part of the Society. 

In the month of March a dark cloud swept over 
Shoshong. The town was situated at the foot of a 
mountain kloof which had been selected as affording 
a military stronghold against the Matabele. Mosele- 
katse, the fierce founder of that ruthless tribe, had 
often threatened to attack Sekhome, the chief of the 
Bamangwato, but hitherto his threats had been unful- 
filled, and Sekhome's tribe had been growing stronger 
and stronger. At last the news reached Shoshong 
that their dreaded foe was moving for a determined 
attack upon them. This raid of the Matabele has 
been vividly described by Mackenzie.'^ That account 
amplifies a letter which he wrote at the close of the 
struggle to Dr Tidman, and which was printed 
in the Chronicle of the London Missionary Society at 
the time. The following is the main part of the letter 
giving the account of the raid itself : — 

In more than one of my letters from this place, I have 
^ " Ten Years North," etc, chapter xiv. 



" WANDERJAHRE " 79 

been able to speak favourably of the prospects of the 
Makololo Mission. In fact, there was good reason to believe 
that before the end of 1863, your agents would be at work in a 
healthy locality on the north bank of the Zambesi, instructing 
the newly-removed Makololo. I am sorry to say that an event 
has taken place bearing most unfavourably on this project. 

When the hunters and traders passed this place from 
Moselekatse's country in September and October last, it was 
rumoured that the Matabele meditated an attack on the 
Bamangwato. Altho' Sekhome had no reason for presum- 
ing on the friendship or consideration of the Ishmaelite 
Zulu chief, Moselekatse had so often pledged himself to Mr 
Moffat to give up his warlike policy that a certain impression 
was made even on the suspicious native mind. 

It seemed to be the opinion of both Europeans and natives, 
that although the Matabele chief might continue to break his 
promise annually by sending his warriors to attack the Mashona 
and Makololo, who live on the north and north-west of his 
country, he would study to put the best face on such doings 
by keeping the peace with the tribes south of his territory. 

On the 7th of March, however, Sekhome and his tribe 
received definite intelligence that a Matabele army was 
approaching, and that already several large cattle posts had 
fallen into the enemy's hands. Happening to pass thro' 
the khotla or court that morning on my way from school, I 
heard the first messenger, all breathless and excited, tell his 
tale, giving information concerning the Matabele. The war- 
cry at once resounded in the "kloof" where the Bamangwato 
live, and soon from all quarters men streamed into the 
khotla, some armed with guns and others with the assegai or 
spear, and ox-hide shield. The first thing to be done was 
to collect the cattle from the various posts, with the sheep 
and goats. Men having been despatched for this purpose, 
and sentinels placed at the various entrances to the Bamang- 
wato Mountains, Sekhome marched out of the town at the 
head of his men, and held what I suppose must be called a 
review ; although it was certainly a different spectacle from 
what is indicated by that expression in civilised countries. 
There was no marching, no defiling, no sham fighting ; but 
the chief squatted on the ground, dealt out ammunition, etc., 
to those who stood in need of it, inspected the faulty lock 
of one gun and the frail stock of another, all the while 
enquiring after the absent, conversing with those present 



8o JOHN MACKENZIE 

around him, and listening to the accounts of every newly- 
arrived herdsman, who, leaving his charge in the hands of 
the Matabele, had fled for his life. In passing my house, 
after having this " review," Sekhome jocularly asked me if I 
were going to help him against the Matabele ? Replying in 
the negative, I reminded him that I was a promulgator of 
peace and goodwill amongst men ; that I had no quarrel 
with the Matabele ; and that I was persuaded they also 
would regard me as a neutral party. His reply was to the 
effect that Matabele warriors did not make nice distinctions : 
and that the colour of a man's skin was not easily discovered 
in the darkness of night. He then informed me that they 
expected to be attacked during the night or very early in 
the morning. " In the olden time," added the chief, 
" whilst our herdsmen were still informing us of the loss of 
our cattle, the thieves themselves were wont to fall upon us 
before we could make any preparation for self-defence ; but 
to-night they will find us ready ; and should they enter the 
town they will find it empty." 

Sekhome having given orders that all the women and 
children should take refuge in the mountains, and that all 
property should be removed thither also, a strange and 
melancholy spectacle presented itself to the eye; the several 
narrow paths leading to the top of the steep and rugged 
mountains were for some time densely crowded with women, 
each one carrying a large bundle on her back, and the rest 
struggling up the ascent before her. For some time the 
women and old servants and old men followed each other as 
closely as do people in Cheapside. That night Mrs 
Mackenzie was the only female in the town of the Bamang- 
wato ; and our children the only little ones who had not been 
removed to the mountain fastnesses. People passed to and 
fro, under arms the whole night ; every one was on the alert ; 
and Mrs Mackenzie and myself slept as little as the Bamang- 
wato. About ten o'clock the young chiefs paid us a visit 
with several of those who attend church and school, 
surrounded by whom I offered up prayer before our door, 
in the bright moonlight. During the night we collected our 
letters, accounts, portraits, etc., in a little box ; so as to be 
easily removed. Although we could not sleep like our 
children, we could commend them and ourselves to the 
protection of God, our Heavenly Father, and enjoy the 
repose of mind consequent on trust in the Almighty. 



" WANDERJAHRE " 8i 

At length the morning dawned without any attack having 
taken place. The cattle, sheep and goats, from the outposts 
came pouring in, and were hastily driven up the mountains. 
The kloof for a time resounded with the lowing of cattle, the 
bleating of sheep and goats, and the shouts of their drivers. 

In stating his plan of defence the Chief informed me that 
should the enemy make the attack from the plain, they were 
to be allowed to enter the town, and to set it on fire, if they 
chose ; that a number of cattle were to be kept in sight as a 
bait for the Matabele on the side of the mountain behind 
Mr Price's house, and right opposite my own ; and that the 
fight would therefore take place, as it were, on our premises. 
Sekhome said he was sure to beat them on this ground ; but 
if they approached from the plain he would not risk an 
engagement elsewhere. He added that he was sorry our 
houses were in the way, but he could not help it. In the 
event of the Matabele endeavouring to reach the town from 
the north which was nearest the scene of their depredations 
the Bamangwato were to meet them on a " haugh " in the 
heart of the mountains, and if beaten were to fall back on 
the vantage-ground before referred to. 

After seriously considering our position in connection with 
this statement, and taking into account the merciless and 
bloody character of the Matabele, I came to the conclusion 
that it would be best for Mrs Mackenzie and the children to 
retire to the mountains, until the danger became less 
imminent. When I listened to one messenger after another 
narrating the cowardly, spiteful, and bloody deeds, enacted 
at the cattle posts my resolution was confirmed. While Mrs 
Mackenzie and the children were in the house I could not 
but feel uneasy as to the result of a midnight rush of such 
savages, everyone of whose spears had repeatedly drunk the 
blood of the aged and decrepit, the defenceless female and 
the tender infant. 

Khame, the eldest son of Sekhome, kindly furnished me 
with a few men who carried up the hill the few articles which 
we had resolved to remove from the house. Accompanied 
by these people and by our servants, Mrs Mackenzie and the 
children took their departure. I followed with our cattle, 
and passed my little family squatted on the grass beneath a 
tree, their nearest neighbours on one side being the chief 
wife of Sekhome, and on the other Joseph and Koenraad de 
Buys, from the Transvaal Country. This was Friday morn- 



82 JOHN MACKENZIE 

ing ; it was Wednesday evening of the following week before 
Mrs Mackenzie left her " refuge " on the mountain top ; and 
the native women remained for two or three days longer. 

It was not that life on the mountain was at all pleasant, 
for it was well known to be a haunt of wolves and tigers ; in 
fact, but a few days before, a sheep had been killed by a tiger 
in broad day light, not many hundred yards from where Mrs 
Mackenzie and the little ones slept in the open air. But we 
heard nothing of such unwelcome visitors, and cannot but 
think that the overwhelming rush of people into their haunts 
must have driven both wolves and tigers to seek a lair else- 
where. South Africa is a very thirsty land ; all its inhabitants 
are ever ready to welcome rain ; and many pretend to be 
able to conjure it from the reluctant clouds ; yet the showers 
which on more than one night aroused the sleepers on the 
top of the Bamangwato Hills were anything but welcome. 
The people disappeared in the crevices among the rocks : 
Mrs Mackenzie drew her little ones closer to her, and a 
karross, spread over their heads on the branches of the tree, 
formed a pretty good protection from the rain which was then 
falling in torrents. It was my intention to remain in the 
house during the night, that, in case of an attack, I might be 
able to inform the Matabele invaders that the premises 
belonged to a missionary ; but such was Mrs Mackenzie's 
description of her first night on the mountains, alone with 
the little ones, that I considered it indispensable afterwards to 
form one of the party. Our house was thus left without an 
occupant during the night : but a Makololo woman, whom I 
had saved from starvation a few months before, slept on the 
premises. Being still weak and sadly afflicted with St Vitus's 
Dance, she preferred remaining among our pots to climbing 
the mountains, and we allowed her to do what she pleased. 
I have to record, to the credit of the Bamangwato, that 
although Mr Price's premises were entirely deserted, and my 
own every night left in charge of a single woman, no attempt 
at theft was made. Of course so long as Mrs Mackenzie and 
the children remained on the mountain, my attention was 
divided between them and our premises. The awkwardness 
of my position will be seen when I state that it would be 
much more easy to climb to the top of Arthur's Seat, 
Edinburgh, than it was to reach our encampment on the top 
of the Bamangwato Hills. You will have a pretty good 
idea as to how I occupied myself between Friday and 



" WANDERJAHRE " 83 

Wednesday (and you will excuse the illustration), when I 
inform you that during the above period I wore down a pair 
of English made boots, and lamed myself into the bargain ! 

Fight between the Bamangwato and the Matabele 

While we were scaling the mountain, the Bamangwato 
forces had assembled in the haugh referred to. It seems 
there was a good deal of talking ; and Sekhome (who 
besides being chief is also a " ngaka," or doctor or sorcerer) 
was earnestly engaged in reading his dice, and repeating his 
incantations, when he was interrupted by Khame, who very 
abruptly informed his father that he was taking up too much 
time with these things ; that as for himself (Khame) he 
wanted to fight and have done with it. The chief, who felt 
proud of his son, " pocketed " the insult which in his priestly 
character he had sustained, and immediately ordered out the 
two youngest " mepato " or regiments, viz., that of Khame 
and that of his brother Khamane. The people were so 
pleased with the conduct of the young chief, that several old 
men who of course did not belong to his regiment, tried to 
join it as it moved off, but were seen by Sekhome and 
ordered back. 

The two chiefs next in rank to Sekhome also joined 
Khame's party, followed by a number of their men. The 
whole force under Khame did not exceed two hundred. Of 
these the majority had guns, and about eight were mounted 
on horseback. Before he rode off Khame was addressed 
by his father to the effect that he must not imagine he was 
going on an elephant hunt; that he was marching against 
men, and not merely men, but Matabele. 

It was late in the afternoon before they met the Matabele, 
who, contrary to their old custom, had been advancing slowly, 
apparently in no hurry to attack the town. They were march- 
ing in three companies, two of whom were together, and these 
the Bamangwato attacked. At first the " Machaga " made 
light of the guns, and imitated their report ; but they soon 
changed their tune. Moving in compact bodies, every ball 
told on some of them, so that when charged by those on 
horseback they gave way, some of them throwing down their 
arms and fleeing. These, however, were rallied by the 
others shouting to them that they were disobeying Mosele- 
katse's orders, which forbade any of the warriors to run from 



84 JOHN MACKENZIE 

the enemy. While the day was thus with the Bamangwato, 
the third company of Matabele, which had been following 
up a cattle track at some distance, hearing the report of 
firearms, hastened to the scene of action, and seeing how 
matters were going, crept along under the cover of the rank 
grass until they got close behind the Bamangwato. They 
advanced until they were discovered, when they sprang to 
their feet, and, raising their wild war-cry, rushed as one man 
on the forces of Khame. The retreating Matabele, finding 
that their comrades had come to their assistance, turned on 
their pursuers ; so that now the Bamangwato found them- 
selves surrounded by the enemy. Khame shouted to his 
men to stand ; but his authority was soon at an end. Many 
of the Bamangwato had shown symptoms of fear from the 
beginning, and fought only after they saw that Khame and 
his young men were gaining the day. Now, when they 
beheld machaga on every side, the old fear of the Matabele 
seemed to return to them, and they fled in all directions, the 
horsemen doing their best to cover their retreat. The Mata- 
bele did not pursue them far ; and the Bamangwato returned 
during the night, leaving about twenty dead on the field. 
The loss on the other side was much greater, according to 
reliable reports which have since been received from the 
Makalaka country ; but of course we cannot ascertain the 
exact number. There were five of Moselekatse's sons in the 
fight, three of whom were killed and one supposed to be 
wounded. This information comes from Makalaka belong- 
ing to Sekhome, who at the time of the attack were on a 
visit to their friends living in a Makalaka town under 
Moselekatse, to which the machaga turned aside while they 
sent forward a messenger to the king to announce their 
return. As the men referred to were themselves Makalaka, 
they easily passed with the Matabele as natives of the town, 
and thus got to know the truth concerning the results of the 
engagement. 

Out of many incidents which occurred in the fight, I shall 
narrate one or two. Pelutona, one of the chief men who 
went with Khame, being very fat and on foot, soon fell behind 
in the retreat, and would have been killed but for the gallant 
conduct of one of his men. This devoted heathen servant 
put himself between his master and his pursuers, saying to 
the former, " Take a good breathing now ; they have to kill 
me first; and before they do so you will be well rested." 



" WANDERJAHRE " 85 

Instead of firing at once at the Matabele, this man kept them 
at a distance by now and then presenting his gun at them, 
until at length, thinking they were far enough from the main 
body, their pursuers left them. I shall give another instance 
of an entirely different description. In the course of the 
retreat of the Bamangwato one of them found himself at 
some distance from the others, and closely pursued by a 
Letebele. His gun was loaded and cocked too, but he had 
not courage enough to enable him to stand and fire ; so he 
ran as fast as he could, carrying his gun on his shoulder. 
To the surprise of both pursuer and pursued, bang went the 
gun, its bearer still running at the top of his speed. Whether 
the ball had passed somewhat near to the Letebele is not 
known ; but at any rate, he at once gave up the pursuit, 
evidently of opinion that he was altogether too dangerous a 
fellow who could thus fire over his shoulder without slacken- 
ing his pace ! Another man was brought to me some five 
days after the battle with spear wounds on his arm and body. 
He killed three men, but was surrounded while loading, his 
gun taken from him, and he himself left for dead. Coming 
to himself during the night, he crawled out of the way to a 
place of safety; but it took him five days to get home, as he 
could not walk. He is now quite well. 

The remainder of the letter described the futile 
manner in which the Matabele regiments hung round 
Shoshong for a few days. Mackenzie proposed to 
visit their camp, but the Bamangwato leaders unani- 
mously agreed that this would be a foolhardy adven- 
ture. As the invaders retreated, baffled for the first 
time in their history by another native tribe, they 
harried the country far and wide. 

It was under these circumstances, when Mackenzie 
had become known as Sekhome Missionary, and Sek- 
home's warriors had turned the Matabele from their 
purpose, that the proposal was made to Mackenzie to 
make another journey into Matabeleland. The pro- 
posal was made by Mr J. S. Moffat and his brother- 
in-law Roger Price, who returned in the month of 
June from the South. The Matabele Mission was 
supposed to consist of three missionaries and their 



86 JOHN MACKENZIE 

families, who were all settled at Inyati. It seemed 
not impossible at this time that, through ill-health or 
other causes, two of these households, if not three, 
might be compelled to leave the country. This might 
have meant the total abandonment of the Mission, 
for Moselekatse, it was feared, would be unwilling to 
repeat favours which had been wrung from him only 
by the strong personal influence of Robert Moffat. 
Mr J. S. Moffat was especially urgent in pleading with 
Mackenzie to go in as a temporary reinforcement of 
the Mission. A second consideration was based upon 
Moselekatse's well-known attitude of suspicion towards 
missionaries, and his fear of their power in his land. 
It would help to familiarise him with their presence 
if Mackenzie appeared before him even for a while, 
and sought to gain from him some fresh favour for 
that work. In connection with this opportunity there 
was a vague idea in their minds that Moselekatse 
might be induced to give Mackenzie a new station in 
Matabeleland where, since the plans for the Makololo 
had failed, and Shoshong was at present pre-occupied 
by the Germans, Mackenzie might at least find it 
possible to settle down. He made it clear, in a letter 
written in the following year, that he had no personal 
desire to make the journey, and no real intention to 
settle in Matabeleland. He went, at some personal 
risk and much inconvenience, at the earnest and pro- 
longed solicitation of his brethren. This journey, 
however, was of great value to Mackenzie, as it gave 
him time in the months which he spent there to study 
very closely what nowadays would be called the 
sociology of a purely military tribe, and the per- 
sonality of its founder and chief. The result of this 
study is described at length in his book.^ The follow- 
ing letter presents more briefly an account of this 
journey : — 

^ "Ten Years North," etc., chaps, xiv.-xviii. 



" WANDERJAHRE " 87 

Inyati, Sept. 1863. 

Rev. Dr Tidman, 

Dear Sir, — My last to you, written in July a few days 
after our departure from the Bamangwato, will have informed 
you of the reasons which influenced us to undertake a journey 
in the Matabele country. On reaching Mahuku's Town and 
receiving reliable intelligence of the welfare of our fellow- 
labourers amongst the Matabele, the first we had heard of 
them for nearly a year, I sent back a short note addressed to 
Mr Thompson of Cape Town, the contents of which have 
likely been forwarded to you. 

It is the custom to announce to Moselekatse the arrival at 
his outposts of any strangers or travellers. Accordingly, on 
the Monday after our arrival, three Batalaouta were despatched 
by Shupeng, who is now the head-man at Mahuku's kraal, to 
inform Moselekatse of the return of Mr Moffat accompanied 
by another missionary, " who had come to see the King and 
his friends the missionaries at Inyati." We found that great 
stress was laid by the Batalaouta on the fact that I had been 
at Sekhome's during the late war, in fact that I was to be 
announced to the King as Sekhome's Missionary. While 
not caring to hide my connection with the Bamangwato I 
endeavoured to impress on their minds that I had only been 
one year at Sekhome's, that I had come from England at the 
same time as the Matabele missionaries, and that I was one 
with them in entire neutrality in all political matters. I 
learned afterwards, however, that my explanations were given 
in vain ; all that reached the ear of the chief was that 
" Yonie " (Mr Moffat) was coming, accompanied by Sekhome's 
Missionary. 

Taking it for granted that Moselekatse would admit us, 
we did not wait at Mahuku's for an answer, as is sometimes 
done, but slowly followed in the rear of our messengers. 
After passing thro' in this way the beautiful " Makalaka 
country," as it is called, we entered the Matabele territory 
proper, now having an escort, or spy, a lichaga or warrior, 
whose town was on the road. 

The messengers from Moselekatse met us one morning 
before we had inspanned near the Boherehere river. After 
saluting us, the principal man began to give us the " mouth 
of the King." First of all came a great number of questions 
concerning myself, summed up by, "The King wishes to 
know what is your business in his country ? " After having 



88 JOHN MACKENZIE 

" catechised " for some time in this manner the messenger 
began, not without some confusion, to deliver the decision 
of his master. It was astounding, after having answered so 
many questions put by order of Moselekatse to be given to 
understand that the King had already made up his mind, 
and that I was commanded to return, that the King did not 
wish to see me. On inquiring into the use and wont of the 
thing, I found that it was quite customary to question people 
in this way, and yet, no matter what their answers might be, 
wind up the conversation summarily by announcing the 
previously formed decision of the chief. Further, my friends 
were of opinion that altho' my position was not altogether 
hopeless thro' this decision as to obtaining permission to 
enter the country, it was nevertheless nearly so, inasmuch as 
Moselekatse was very seldom known to change his mind. 
Altho' I might have returned at once, having ascertained 
that the friends at Inyati were all in good health, I confess I 
felt a strong disclination to do so. In the first place I did 
not relish the indignity involved in being sent about one's 
business in so summary a manner ; but above all that I felt 
it would tend to enhance our character among the natives, 
who are all suspicious, were we able to pass over from one 
tribe to another in time of war. Altho' it may seem to those 
at a distance a small matter that we have succeeded in carry- 
ing our point, yet we on the spot see reasons to rejoice at it. 
Many of the heathen chiefs with their people are still wofully 
ignorant as to the true object of the missionary ; we wish to 
teach them that in peace and in war we are the disinterested 
friends of all, having one simple object amongst them, to 
proclaim to them the gospel and to instruct them in its truth. 
I found on inquiry that one of the men was to return to the 
King with our explanation ; so Mr Moffat and myself set our- 
selves to the task of unfolding to him our views and plans in 
so far as we deemed it necessary, reiterating the salient points 
so as to impress them on his mind. We found the mes- 
sengers very respectful and well disposed ; indeed we could 
understand that it was their wish that I should be admitted. 
Mr Moffat was struck with the improvement for the better 
which had taken place in his absence in the outward be- 
haviour of the Matabele. In the course of conversation we 
learned some of the remarks which had fallen from the King 
when he heard that Sekhome's teacher was coming. Point- 
ing to some . cows in his cattle pen which had been stolen 



II 



" WANDERJAHRE " 89 

from the Bamangwato, Moselekatse jocularly called to his 
attendants to hasten and milk some of Sekhome's cows for 
Sekhome's missionary, " for he must be hungry after so long 
a journey." '' Why, if I admit this man he will see every- 
thing in the country and return and inform Sekhome." 
" Well, really," said a puzzled wife sitting near, " what crimes 
do these white men commit, which cause them to flee from 
their own country in this way ? " 

Being without water at the place where we received the 
king's message, we suggested that we go forward a.iod wait at 
the first water for the king's final decision. To this the 
Machaga agreed, altho' with reluctance, being evidently un- 
willing to allow me to advance without the king's consent. 
On Friday afternoon the messenger returned from the king, 
his feet and legs covered with dust, but with a smiling 
countenance. Moselekatse's answer was that " I was to 
come on ; but where was my gift or present to him, and that 
of Mr J. Moffat? He had not seen them." We reached 
the camp of Moselekatse on Monday afternoon ; but did not 
see the chief till next morning. He was not living in a town ; 
but at the foot of a mountain near to a place called Sesentene. 
His four waggons were drawn up near to each other; behind 
these were the temporary huts of his harem and servants, 
closed in by a hedge of thorn branches ; and in front a large 
pen for cattle and another for sheep and goats. Such were 
the " quarters " in which we found the King of the Matabele ; 
and thus I am told he spends the greater portion of the year. 
As in other things, his movements seem to be guided by 
whims. After living for some time at a place suddenly the 
order is issued to pack the waggons and yoke the oxen ; 
and before all of the attendants know whither they are going 
the waggons are moving and the temporary huts left in a 
blaze. 

And now for my reception by Moselekatse. After passing 
the little huts and the waggons we were shown into the sheep- 
pen, at the door of which sat a number of Machaga. A fire 
had been placed in the middle of the pen ; near to this, 
seated in an old-fashioned arm-chair, the gift of Mr Moffat, 
sat Moselekatse. As we walked up and got each a warm 
and very lengthy shake of the hand, the attendants kept 
shouting " Great King," " Man-eater," etc. On taking our 
places on the ground opposite the arm-chair we had a full 
view of the object of this praise ; and saw an old, frail man, 



90 JOHN MACKENZIE 

so frail that he is carried about in the chair by his wives, and 
whose only clothing then consisted of an English blanket 
brought loosely round his loins and a cadet cap on his head. 
An old great-coat, the original of which was to me matter of 
speculation, served as a footstool, and was removed with the 
chair, when the King desired to change his position. One 
could not help looking with peculiar feelings on the counte- 
nance of a man whose whole career has been so bloody, and 
so successful. We could imagine we saw evidence of that 
force of character, and cruel unscrupulousness, which have 
ever distinguished him. His features are still indicative of 
intelligence and force of character ; while at the same time 
expressions occasionally flit across them which help us to 
realize that we are in presence of one who could listen to the 
voice of justice or mercy unmoved. No notice was taken of 
the two greatcoats which we had sent on the previous day ; 
but immediate application was made for additional " help," 
as the expression here goes. However, our reception on the 
whole was gracious enough, as things go here. He recog- 
nised me as a missionary from Kuruman, or England, the 
differences or distances between these places not being very 
clearly understood by the Matabele. Not having an opportunity 
of speaking to the King in private, I did not introduce the 
subject of the war with Sekhome ; for any public question- 
ing of his policy is not at all calculated to produce beneficial 
results. Moselekatse has been noted for the hospitality of 
detaining visitors long after the time at which they desired to 
depart. But lung-sickness having considerably diminished the 
quantity of beef at his disposal, visitors are no longer guests 
fed at the King's expense ; and in our own case, after a stay of 
two days, the chief's politely expressed reluctance at our depar- 
ture was fully met by a promise of an early visit after we had 
seen our friends at Inyate. We hope then to have an oppor- 
tunity of speaking to the chief on the subject of the war with 
Sekhome ; but we cannot reasonably hope for much success, 
inasmuch as no one has ever succeeded hitherto in persuad- 
ing Moselekatse to give up his warlike pursuits. It was at 
one time fondly imagined that such a result had been 
obtained, but a very short residence in the country con- 
vinced our brethren that this belief was altogether unfounded. 
Since your missionaries came into this country, only one 
year has passed unmarked by the departure of the Matabele 
forces against the native tribes to the east, north-east, and 



'' WANDER] AHRE" 91 

north ; and during that exceptional year, if the Matabele 
were not engaged in a foreign war, they were occupied with 
slaughtering one another. Interest was brought to bear with 
the King against Monyebe, the greatest friend of missionaries 
and most powerful man in the country after the King. He 
was accused of witchcraft, and put to death with all his 
house. Such being the past history of the Matabele, even 
after their connexion with missionaries, we cannot be very 
sanguine as to the result of our efforts to deter the King from 
prosecuting that war with the Bamangwato. However, we 
shall do our best. 

We reached Inyate on Saturday, 29th of August, when we 
had the pleasure of meeting with our dear friends Mr Thomas 
and Mr and Mrs Sykes. This pleasure however had its sad 
alloy in the absence of Mrs Thomas. All we could see of 
her, except in the features of her two little boys, was her 
grave. However, she herself is with God, and doubtless 
feels no regret, either that she embarked in the mission 
work or that her remains are far removed from those of her 
kindred. I have the impression that Christian work among 
the Zulus in the neighbourhood of Natal, although extending 
over a lengthened period, has been sadly unproductive of 
results. My remark applies to the natives beyond British 
territory, who are under the despotic sway of their chiefs. If 
this impression is correct, there are others similarly situated 
to your agents in the Matabele country, preaching the word 
to a handful of people while the great mass of the people 
stand scornfully aloof. At the same time, the Matabele 
mission has been a trying one to your agents, and to all 
appearances their patience as well as that of your Directors 
will be tried for a long time to come before marked pros- 
perity shall attend their efforts. I am glad to testify to the 
change that is taking place in the minds of the Matabele to- 
wards the missionaries. Received four years ago with the 
utmost suspicion, they are now trusted throughout the 
country, but especially in the neighbourhood of Inyate. 
The overbearing rudeness with which they were at first 
treated by all classes has now given place in most cases to 
respect. There are three out-stations in connection with 
Inyate, which the brethren visit weekly for the purpose of 
preaching the Gospel to the people. The whole population 
which thus comes under the influence of the missionaries is 
some 700 or 800, while of these about 150 constitute the 



92 JOHN MACKENZIE 

total number of hearers at the four stations, on any given 
week. Repeated attempts have been made in the way of 
teaching the young, but hitherto without success. Learning 
seems to be regarded by the people with fear. They are 
not sure how Moselekatse would regard such a movement. 
The work of your agents, therefore, has been to a great extent 
of a preparatory nature. They have had to eradicate many 
weeds before they could sow the good seed of the Gospel. 
However, the Word of God can be said now to be found in 
the Matabele country ; it is preached regularly, and in the 
language of the country. And just as the life and conversa- 
tion of the missionaries slowly disarmed the people of 
suspicion and dislike, so the " little leaven " of heaven's 
truth at present in course of being introduced into their 
minds cannot possibly remain there long inert and unobserv- 
able. The soil however is emphatically a bad one. The 
training of the Matabele, their habits of plunder and blood- 
shed, and their social usages, all combine in their opposition 
to the requirements of Christianity. Your agents are labour- 
ing amongst a population the male portion of which has been 
gathered from all tribes, knows little or nothing of home or 
kindred, lives in barracks, robs and slaughters at least every 
year, without reference to sex or age, and knows no law but 
that of their King. The females are also the children of all 
the tribes and are as unpromising as the men, if not more 
so, as subjects of the Gospel. These things are mentioned 
simply for the purpose of showing that the difficulties of this 
field are of no ordinary description ; and considering the 
amount of opposition and ill-feeling which has been over- 
come the directors and friends of the Society have good 
reason to be thankful, although their agents here cannot 
point to a single individual and say — " I have good hope of 
this person," or " Here is our first convert." 

When I left Bamangwato, I promised to Mr Price to 
return in the course of the summer, provided that Mr and 
Mrs Sykes were in such health as to enable them to carry on 
the duties of this station in conjunction with Mr and Mrs 
Moffat. It was understood that only one inducement ought 
to detain me in the country, the permission of Moselekatse 
to occupy a new district as a field of missionary labour. 
While my oxen are resting I shall endeavour to find out the 
views of the head-men on this subject, and should I find 
that they are decidedly opposed to the establishment of a 



" WANDER) AHRE " 93 

separate station I shall not make the request formally of the 
king. Should I meet with encouragement, however, and in 
the end obtain from the king a suitable place for a station, I 
think the Directors will agree with my brethren here and 
with myself that it would be of importance not to neglect 
such an opening. At the same time rather than attempt to 
push the matter, and rather than wait on, doing next to 
nothing, in the hope that a more favourable time may come, 
I conceive it will be my duty to return to the Bamangwato, 
which is at any rate a riper field than the Matabele country, 
and where I can resume direct and encouraging labours 
which were interrupted by the present journey. — I remain, 
ever yours truly, John Mackenzie. 

Another letter which Mackenzie wrote after his 
return to Shoshong describes at greater length the 
negotiations which he carried on with Moselekatse, 
and the means which he employed for discovering 
the exact facts in Matabeleland from the missionary's 
point of view. He concentrated attention upon one 
object, to ascertain the amount of liberty granted 
by Moselekatse to missionaries on the one hand, and 
to his own people in relation to the missionaries on 
the other. He conversed especially with the head- 
men, through whom the chief carried out his will. In 
brief, Mackenzie found that, while the missionaries had 
nominally all liberty to teach and preach, the people 
were warned that they must not learn. Moselekatse 
knew full well that people who read the gospel could 
not remain true to his military system, and that men 
who learn to read could not be prevented from reading 
the gospel. When the chief, to the amazement of 
everyone, agreed to give Mackenzie a fountain for his 
new station, and empowered Mr J. S. Moffat to select 
one, Mackenzie used this as the opportunity for 
making one more urgent appeal to the chief to allow 
his people to become real learners. In this attempt 
he completely failed ; and, as it seenied to him per- 
fectly useless to open a new mission in a land 



94 JOHN MACKENZIE 

practically closed to mission work, while in other 
directions many thousands of heathen people were 
hungering to be taught, he decided to return to 
Shoshong. 

It was during this visit to the Matabele that the first 
bereavement fell upon Mackenzie's immediate family. 
In October his third child, born at Shoshong the 
previous year, died of croup at the age of fourteen 
months. Mackenzie's affectionate heart was deeply 
moved at the loss of little Annie. To the end of his 
days he referred to her with a loving and tender 
affection, and spoke of her always as still one of the 
family, and one of whose continued life in the unseen 
he was immovably convinced. He wrote at the time 
as follows : — 

Now, don't grieve over us as if our affliction must have 
been so very much heightened by our being in a heathen 
land. We were among very kind friends ; and, above all, 
we buried our child with calm triumph, submitting to Death, 
and the Grave, and Corruption, in the light of the Gospel. 
" I am the Resurrection and the Life ; " " Suffer the little 
children to come unto Me." Altho' we say -it with a sigh, 
still we are glad and happy that we have a child in Heaven, 
in that wondrous *' House of the Lord." O for one glimpse 
of what she sees ! You know why we are here. We came 
as a " stop the gap " ; had we not come, and had our brethren 
here been in bad health, the Mission might have been 
dispersed for a time ; and it is not always easy to resume 
what has been given up in the country of the Matabele. It 
is not certain whether we remain here or not. Perhaps the 
likelihood is that we shall go out again. There is not 
freedom, and until there is, three missionaries are enough. 
The people here are the most degraded of all the tribes I 
have visited. The King has great power, in fact does what 
he pleases with his subjects, who fear him very much. This 
is the obstacle to the progress of the Gospel. Moselekatse 
has more at stake than many other chiefs in connection with 
the reception of the Gospel by his people. The whole 
social fabric of the Matabele must be completely changed, 
their whole policy, their whole course of life, when the 



"WANDERJAHRE'' 95 

Gospel is generally received. The King is intelligent enough 
to see this ; and it may be long before much is effected, for 
this very reason. Of course cases of individual conversion 
may take place, altho' they have not done so as yet. 
The Word and Spirit of God are omnipotent. 

Shortly after Mackenzie's return to Shoshong, where 
Price had settled in diligent service, he received news 
that the German missionaries were to be withdrawn 
from all stations in Bechuanaland, and that Mr 
Schulenborg would not return to Shoshong. The 
way now was open to him to consider his appoint- 
ment by the Directors to this station as final, and he 
forthwith set himself to the work which occupied him 
for more than ten years among the most powerful 
tribe in Bechuanaland, happy indeed to have done 
with the six homeless years of his wanderings up and 
down South Africa. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE FIRST PERIOD AT SHOSHONG (1864-1 87 1 ) 

Mackenzie has given a very full account of the next 
period of his life.^ We must be content with a more 
brief survey. He has described Shoshong in the 
following words : — " Shoshong, the town of the 
Bamangwato, contains a population of some 30,000. 
It is situated at the foot of a mountain range of 
primary rock stretching from east to west for more 
than a dozen miles. About three miles to the south 
of this range there is another basaltic mountain called 
Marutlwe, in the neighbourhood of which both sand- 
stone and limestone are to be found. The ground 
lying between the hills is occupied by the gardens of 
the Bamangwato. The main town spreads along the 
foot of the mountain, and some distance along the 
gorge in the mountain range, where the stream flows 
which supplies the town with water. There are also 
five divisions of the town in a beautifully sheltered 
position among the mountains. Again, there are 
small towns along the range to the west to the 
distance of some six miles, all being under one chief, 
whose decision is final." The comfort of life at 
Shoshong was much affected by the inadequacy of 
the water supply, for which the entire town depended 
upon a few springs in the bed of the river in the 
kloof The river channel opposite the mission 
premises, and right through the town, was perfectly 
dry, except after sudden and abundant rains. Then 
the river came down in a flood, which however 

^ "Ten Years North of the Orange River," chapters xviii.-xxv. 

96 



THE FIRST PERIOD AT SHOSHONG 97 

speedily subsided ; after the rainy season was over 
no signs of it remained. Mackenzie would have liked 
for his own sake, as well as for the sake of the natives, 
to institute a small system of irrigation at Shoshong. 
Indeed, when he was home in 1870, he wrote to Dr 
Mullens, the Foreign Secretary of the Society, saying : 
" I wish some kind friend of the Mission would present 
me with a pump in order that through irrigation we 
might at least occasionally enjoy the luxury of a few 
vegetables at dinner." But he never had either the 
time or money to carry out so useful a project. 

It was a picturesque sight, undoubtedly, which met 
the eye in the early morning, and especially at sunset, 
as the women of the town went up to the springs with 
large earthen pots on their heads to fetch the water 
supply for the following day. The interest of watch- 
ing this stream of human beings moving up and down 
the valley was for the missionary children only rivalled 
by watching the strange daily procession of baboons. 
These animals frequented the mountains overhanging 
the town, and possessed the singular habit of using the 
mountain on one side of the river for sleeping in, and 
the range on the other side for their daylight excur- 
sions in search of food. It was ever a matter of great 
interest to go up the kloof and watch these big human- 
like animals crossing the river to their sleeping apart- 
ments. That they had some measure and manner of 
family discipline was firmly believed by all who watched 
them, and who, almost every evening, heard the indig- 
nant speech of an adult baboon, the easily identified 
sounds of whacking, and the corresponding shrill replies 
of juvenile pain and resentment. 

The town was also infested by wolves, or, more 
properly, hyenas of the usually cowardly and treacher- 
ous and filthy kind. They would creep after nightfall to 
the precincts of the town and steal whatsoever they 
could lay hold of, a goat or a child. Mackenzie tried 

G 



98 JOHN MACKENZIE 

to encourage the natives to reduce the numbers of 
these unwelcome scavengers. He several times set 
gun-traps, and once he used meat poisoned with 
strychnine in order to get rid of some unusually 
daring depredator, and each time with success. His 
elder children still remember a weird hyena scene. 
One night, when several traders sat talking with 
Mackenzie in his parlour, his dogs started up sud- 
denly with a unanimous howling and barking and 
a rush in one direction. This could only mean a 
hyena. Lanterns were procured, a gun was shouldered 
by Mackenzie, and they rushed out into the darkness. 
The sounds drew them to the rocks at the foot of the 
mountain immediately behind the house. There they 
found that the dogs, by harassing and worrying, had 
exhausted the energies of the hyena, and it lay panting 
on a flat rock almost in reach of safety. Mackenzie 
proposed to shoot it, when a little trader, whose 
diminutive size and bow legs created constant merri- 
ment among the natives, protested that the skin should 
not be spoilt, that he could cut its throat. Someone 
handed him a knife, which turned out to be too blunt. 
When his sawing at the throat with this unhappy in- 
strument at last irritated the skin, the reviving energies 
of the hyena enabled it to snap at and hold the trader's 
toe within its jaws. The native crowd burst into an 
irresistible guffaw at the ludicrous scene. The im- 
prisoned boot was quickly shaken free, and Mackenzie 
was allowed to shoot. A little boy is still remembered 
whose face bore the marks of another wolf's fangs 
upon it. He was out after dark, when one of these 
brutes caught him, and throwing him over its shoulder, 
made off for the mountains. The boy's right hand 
was, happily, hanging down and dragging on the 
ground, and it came upon a sharp stone. Immediately 
seizing this stone, this plucky little fellow so be- 
laboured the wolf's face with the ragged edges that 



THE FIRST PERIOD AT SHOSHONG 99 

it was glad to drop its victim. One more wolf story 
Mackenzie used thoroughly to enjoy. It was of a 
trader who, on approaching Shoshong and finding the 
nights hot, protested against sleeping in his waggon. 
Having spread out a large kaross, or tanned skin, on 
the ground, he lay down to sleep, laughing in contempt 
at the idea that any animal could interfere with him. 
He awoke up suddenly to find himself still, indeed, on 
the kaross, but bumping along over the ground, hauled 
by an invisible agency of the darkness. His vigorous 
yells speedily aroused his companions, who were cruel 
enough to enjoy the event and to share their enjoyment 
with others. 

The Bamangwato tribe, whose chief town was at 
Shoshong, had become powerful from about the year 
1845 onwards. It owed much of its prosperity to a 
former chief, Khari by name, of whom Mackenzie says 
that, " brave in the field, wise in counsel, kind to his 
vassals, Khari was all that the Bechuanas desired their 
chief to be." His legal heir was Macheng, a son of 
his head wife ; but an elder son of a subordinate wife, 
Sekhome by name, usurped the throne, killed some of 
his rivals, and caused the flight of Macheng to Mata- 
beleland. Under Sekhome, the tribe prospered until 
manhood was reached by his two sons, Khame and 
Khamane. These two had received Christian instruc- 
tion from Mr Schulenborg, and had been baptised by 
him. Khame grew up to be a man of extraordinary 
dignity of character, his grasp of Christian morality 
being unusually strong and clear, and his loyalty to 
the Christian God profound and immovable. It was 
this noble-minded fidelity of Khame's heart, combined 
with an untiring charity, which led to some of the 
most dramatic situations known in the history of any 
native tribe. One can easily see that in the relations 
of Sekhome to Macheng, his brother, a more degraded 
heathen than himself, and to his Christian sons, all the 



lOO JOHN MACKENZIE 

elements were present of a long series of plots and 
counter-plots. Some of these we shall see unfolded 
in the following pages. 

The gospel was first preached to the Bamangwato 
by David Livingstone, during his first journey north- 
ward to his discovery of Lake Ngami. The first 
regular teacher of the tribe was Sehunelwe a member 
of the Kuruman Church, who had been prepared for 
his work by Robert Moffat, and who was supported in 
it by a few friends in Glasgow. In 1858, Mr 
Schulenborg arrived, and worked faithfully for a short 
period ; his chief distinction, however, lies in the fact 
that he had baptised Khame and his brother. He 
formed a Christian church, but did so prematurely, in 
Mackenzie's estimation, and of such material that the 
foundations had to be relaid some years later. 

Mackenzie set himself to the work of evangelising 
the Bamangwato people with all his heart and soul ; 
for a while he had as his colleague the late Roger 
Price, who in a short time, however, moved to Sechele's 
town, leaving Mackenzie with a task which he always 
felt to be far beyond the limits of one man's powers. In 
brief, his work consisted, first, in preaching, not only 
on Sunday but during the week in the king's court- 
yard and at various central portions of the widely- 
extended town ; second, in carrying on day-school 
teaching, for which he had no assistance ; and third, 
in putting up all the buildings necessary for a Mission 
Station. In 1866 he reported informally that he had 
22 candidates for membership in the church which he 
hoped to establish ; he had about 60 regular hearers 
at his Sunday congregations ; he had one day-school 
whose attendance consisted of 30 adults and 8 
children ; he had besides two district schools with 
similar attendance. It was impossible, of course, to 
carry on this educational work during the recurring 
wars which disturbed the people, and the building 



THE FIRST PERIOD AT SHOSHONG loi 

operations which necessarily absorbed his time and 
energy. The following extracts from letters give all 
too brief glimpses of this side of his work. 

To Miss E. B. Douglas, Portobello. 

Shoshong, \(^th March 1865. 

We are making a little progress here in our work. In the 
district schools which Mr Price and I started some time 
ago, we have had considerable encouragement. The young 
people are generally willing to learn to read ; and the old 
people who are, alas ! unwilling to do anything themselves, 
make a great virtue of giving their sons and nephews liberty 
to learn. The heathen rite of circumcision is now being 
celebrated here with great demonstrations. The old chief, 
by very unworthy arguments, has succeeded in inducing two 
of his younger sons who attended school, and one of whom 
was a very fair scholar, to cast in their lot with him and go 
to the ceremony, the celebration of which continues for some 
two months. We hope they will come back again after it is 
over. They are young and undecided, but with God's help, 
may eventually see their way to something better than the 
tomfooleries in which they are now engaged. The eldest 
son is really a nice lad, unassuming and manly ; and the 
second is also a fair character, although excelled by his 
brother. There is a third son by the same wife, perhaps 
about 15, also a quiet, thoughtful lad. 

It is difficult to say what were or are the religious practices 
of this people before their connection with white men. Of 
course, even the heathen are indirectly influenced by the 
opinions of the white people j and Morimo (God) gets credit 
for a great deal now that was formerly attributed to other 
agencies. 

The Bechuana will appear surprised and sceptical when 
you preach to them the Resurrection from the Dead, and the 
Final Judgment ; and yet they themselves are in the habit of 
resorting to the grave of an ancestor, and there offering up 
their prayers for the help of the departed one in any diffi- 
culty in which they may be placed at the time. This act is 
perhaps not frequently performed and I am not aware that it 
is practised except by the chief men. But Bechuana of all 
classes were in the habit in their journeys to select a very 



102 JOHN MACKENZIE 

large tree in a forest, and there under its shadow offer up 
their prayers. To whom these prayers were made it is diffi- 
cult to find out, but it was probably to their ancestors. Per- 
haps it is a faint shadow of that hoary and widely-spread ritual 
which in Britain is known as Druidism. 

Witchcraft is to the Bechuana a terrible reality, although 
not to the same extent that it is amongst the Zulus. So 
uniformly have all white men ridiculed this article of faith, 
that it is universally admitted by them that we don't know 
how to bewitch. This is a fortunate thing ; many an inno- 
cent Zulu is put to death through jealousy, etc., the pretext 
given by the king being that he is a " wizard." 

Peculiar ideas are entertained out here about mad people. 
The word for mad is tsenwa, the passive of tsena, to enter, to 
go in. Our English expression " possessed " is pretty near 
to the Bechuana idea. Well when a person gets mad, he 
has got Morimo, and therefore some day he is Morimo. A 
poor woman lately became deranged, when hundreds of 
women flocked to see her with offerings of corn, etc. All 
the questions which gipsies and other adepts at palmistry at 
home are so ready to answer, were put to this demented 
creature, and answers of some kind obtained. As if they 
themselves were not satisfied with their conduct, these de- 
votees in some cases explained that the woman was not God, 
but went to speak to Him on the mountain at night ; and 
that He then instructed her what to say. 

To the Rev. Joseph Mullens, D.D. 

Shoshong, 17th June 1867. 

Like all Bechuana tribes, the Bamangwato have the name 
Morimo (God) in their language ; but in their unenlightened 
state they had no knowledge of such being as the God of 
the Bible. According to them the dwelling of Morimo was 
not above but below on the earth. In this tribe a chief or a 
master is daily addressed as Morimo ; and although all have 
now at least heard of the true God, even a missionary is still 
frequently shocked to hear himself addressed as Morimo, 
while some trifling favour is acknowledged or begged ; such is 
the force of habit. 

Life to these wretched heathen was, alas ! and still is, full 
of imaginary dangers, crowded with things which are not 
" canny." Their own flocks and herds may be possessed 



THE FIRST PERIOD AT SHOSHONG 103 

with evil spirits bent on the master's destruction or that of 
his family. I have bought cattle which the natives would 
no longer keep. When the heathen goes to hunt he may 
meet with great misfortune by happening to gaze on a 
certain animal. Consequently, they have doctors who are 
said to be able to help them against these multiform evils, 
for a consideration. From these doctors they buy medicines 
and charms. They wear them on their heads, their necks, 
their wrists, their kaross, their ankles. Between the ngaka 
or doctor, who is also sometimes called moloi or wizard, and 
these numerous charms, there was little room left in the 
Bechuana mind for the position or action of Morimo. In- 
deed, if he had clearly defined attributes at all, they would 
seem to have been malicious ones ; Morimo was a mystery, 
or an object of dread, or both, to the poor benighted ones. 
It is worthy of notice also that in times of great distress the 
" last resource '' was not to pray to Morimo ; but to repair 
to the grave of some powerful ancestor, and there lay their 
case in all its details before the departed and unheeding 
spirit. 

In 1865 Mackenzie set himself to build a house. 
The following " statement of outlay " gives a very 
brief summary of the facts. How^ much personal toil 
was involved in this undertaking it would be hard to 
say, for Mackenzie had to discover a clay bed, make 
frames for his bricks, and then — the hardest task of 
all — had to train native workers to make bricks ; then 
he undertook the task of burning these, which involved 
not only the building of brick kilns, but the hauling 
of firewood in waggons for a long distance. His 
family can recall the intense anxiety with which he 
one day awaited the result of his first experiment. 
He set himself also to use lime, and, having discovered 
limestone, brought it in waggons to the Station, there 
burned it, and prepared it for making mortar. The 
astonishment of the natives at the action of the lime 
was amusing in a high degree. And, further, Mackenzie 
had to take his waggons out into the forest, cut down 
trees, persuade the natives to drag them into the 



i04 JOHN MACKENZIE 

waggons, bring them to the mission ground, and there 
saw them into boards. For the last purpose he dug 
a pit and taught two natives to use a pit-saw. The 
house which he built measured 38 ft. by 23 ft., and 
comprised five rooms, besides the kitchen and pantry. 

Statement of Outlay in Building a Dwelling-House 

I received valuable assistance from several Englishmen, 

who, with the exception of H , who was hired by the 

month, would receive no wages. They of their own accord 
" gave me a hand " for weeks or months, as they had oppor- 
tunity. They boarded at my table, of course, while at work. 
Having no garden here, and everything on my table except 
milk having to be paid for at high prices in the interior, I 
must in justice to myself make the charge of ;£-2, per month 
for one man. The items are as follows : — 

1865. W. H. — Wages, ^14; board 3 months, 

;^io los. .... £2/^ 10 o 



W. F.— Board .... 

F. C— Do 

L. Do 

Paid native labourers in beads, etc. 
1867. M. for kitchen and pantry . 



12 10 o 
900 
3 10 o 

II 16 6 

15 o o 

^76 6 6 



This outlay was met by myself at the time, and charged to 
the account of salary. I now beg to request that the above 
sum be refunded to me. I may mention that, after all, the 
chief part of the work was done by my own hands, the brick- 
laying and dressing the timber. I worked for months as hard 
as any labouring man. The brick-making was partially paid 
for by me to Sekhome, from whom I had four men hired 
for a heifer each. 

Shoshong, yd July 1867. 

In connection with the building of this house, a 
romantic incident took place which casts light at once 
upon the South Africa of those years, and upon human 
nature. There came to Shoshong one Tom Wood, 
an Englishman of the bluff and hearty type, who 



THE FIRST PERIOD AT SHOSHONG 105 

had been a carpenter and had made some money, 
and become a hunter. Between him and Mackenzie 
there sprang up a strong mutual confidence and 
regard. When they were discussing the best way 
of roofing the new house, Tom Wood urgently 
recommended the use of corrugated iron, which 
seemed an impossible, because expensive, plan to 
the missionary. The hunter, however, made a pro- 
posal, which won the day for his plan. He offered, 
if Mackenzie would lend him a waggon and some 
oxen which he needed for his own purposes, to 
make a journey through the Transvaal to Durban, 
do his own business there, buy the iron roofing, and 
bring it to Shoshong free of charge. This was 
agreed to, and Tom Wood set forth with the 
valuable small waggon and the loan of something 
less than a full span of oxen. It was intended 
that he should be back by September, when the 
rainy season might begin. September arrived and 
passed, but there was no sign of Tom Wood and 
no message from him. As days and weeks more 
went by the missionary had the sore experience of 
being told on all hands that he had been fooled, 
that he had no right to trust so much that was 
of value to a mere travelling adventurer. But 
Mackenzie felt certain that the soul of Tom Wood 
was true, and shaking his big head, said that his faith 
in him would yet be vindicated. That kind of 
certainty can only live on itself, and can give no 
reason but itself to others. In the meantime the 
wet season had to be met. It was known that the 
Boers sometimes use a certain soil called " braak 
grond," which contains salt, and from which, when 
rain falls, it runs off on the surface. Forth Mackenzie 
went into the forest and cut down hundreds of 
makuru trees. The central wood of this tree is so 
hard that ants do not eat it ; but its hardness made 



io6 JOHN MACKENZIE 

it difficult to work. To saw this into planks was out 
of the question, so it was resolved simply to split 
up each tree with wedges, and then use the adze 
to smooth the inner surface of each half, and to 
remove the outer soft wood which the ants would 
enjoy. As the wood is beautifully grained, these 
smoothed faces, when fitted close together, make a 
striking and ornamental ceiling. Over them was 
placed a layer of clay, and over that the " braak 
grond " soil. This answered fairly well. Only a 
few showers came through into one room, over which 
the ants had worked through the clay at one or two 
points, and opened the way for the water. Con- 
tentedly the family faced the rainy season in the 
new house, which seemed like a palace after the two- 
roomed hut. The season of Christmas and New 
Year approached, and still no sign of Tom Wood ; 
and still Mackenzie shook his head emphatically, and 
believed in him. Now, on last New Year's Day, the 
lost traveller had dined with the Mackenzies, and 
before he went off to Durban, he had said, " You'll 
see, Mrs Mackenzie, that I'll eat my next New Year's 
dinner with you." Sadly they surmised that now 
that must be out of the question. When New Year's 
Day came Tom Wood did come with it ! 

When he reached Durban, Tom Wood found that 
the firm with whom his money was deposited had 
failed and his money was all gone. The brave 
fellow, because he was a true man and was trusted 
by another true man a thousand miles away, set to 
work at his own trade, and worked incessantly till he 
had made enough money to buy that roofing and his 
own hunting supplies. After hard and silent toil he 
set forth to reach Shoshong in time to keep that 
appointment with Mrs Mackenzie for New Year's 
Day. 

The following year, 1866, saw an almost complete 



THE FIRST PERIOD AT SHOSHONG 107 

arrest of all ordinary missionary operations at Sho- 
shong. The following letters give a sufficiently 
complete account of the remarkable events which 
occurred at that time : — 

Shoshong, \^th March 1866. 

The Rev. Dr Tidman. 

Rev. and Dear Sir, — Two years ago it was my 
duty to communicate the incidents connected with an attack 
on the Bamangwato by the Matabele. It is now my painful 
task to inform you that a division has just taken place among 
the Bamangwato themselves, which cannot but materially 
affect our work as missionaries in this part of the country. 
In order to a proper understanding of this quarrel it will be 
necessary to recall a few events connected with the past 
history of this tribe. 

It will be remembered that Macheng, who was liberated by 
Mr Moffat from captivity among the Matabele, has a claim to 
the chieftainship of the Bamangwato prior to that of Sekhome. 
Macheng's mother was, it would seem, the chief wife of 
Khari, who was the father of both Macheng and Sekhome. 
Macheng, then, on his return from the Matabele was 
recognized as chief; but the tenure of his power was 
brief Brought up among the soldiers of the Zulu despot, 
Macheng aimed at exercising a sway among his father's 
people equally despotic to that of Moselekatse. Sekhome 
fled for refuge to Sechele's with Khame and Khamane, his 
children. All property was declared to belong to Macheng, 
and nothing could be bought or sold except by his command 
or with his cognizance. By and by a petty chief was put to 
death by Macheng, upon which the head-men, who before 
this were tired of their new king, were now also in terror of 
him lest they should share the fate of him who had been 
summarily put to death. Secret meetings were held at which 
Chukuru took a leading part ; and it was agreed to recall 
Sekhome. Overtures were accordingly made, and both 
Sekhome and Sechele were found to be agreeable, the one 
again to assume his position as chief, the other to aid with 
his men in the accomplishment of that end. Khosilintse was 
the head of the party of the Bakwena who reinstated Sekhome 
as chief of the Bamangwato ; and he returned to Sechele's 
without the loss of a man, but driving a numerous herd of 



io8 JOHN MACKENZIE 

Sekhome's cattle, which was the reward of his services. 
Macheng at first fled in the direction of Moselekatse, and 
begged help from his former master in the recovery of his 
lost chieftainship. Moselekatse refused his aid ; so Macheng 
fell back first on Selekas, to the east of Shoshong, and 
finally was received by Sechele, the very man who had driven 
him from his home. 

Before his banishment, Sekhome had desired his eldest son 
to take to wife a daughter of Pelutona ; but Khame had 
conceived a dislike to this person and refused. On their 
return to the place, Sekhome recommended him to marry a 
daughter of Chukuru, to whom they owed gratitude for his 
efforts in recalling them from their banishment. Khame 
consented, and his wife has proved a helpmeet for her 
husband in his efforts to shake himself loose from heathenism, 
and not a hindrance, as is sometimes the case. Khamane 
the second son also married a daughter of Chukuru, with the 
approbation of Sekhome. This person never went through 
the rite initiating into heathen womanhood ; nor was she 
bought from her father according to the old custom. These 
things vexed Sekhome ; but Chukuru said, if the young 
people had believed the Word of God, he would never be a 
party to compelling them to go through the usual customs of 
their ancestors. 

About fourteen months ago our prospects in this place 
were of the most cheering description. Besides the services 
in the church on the Sabbath, Mr Price and I conducted three 
schools in different parts of this large town, whose inhabitants 
we computed as being at least 30,000. We taught the two 
district schools three days in the week, and had an attendance 
of about 30 children and adults. We employed about 8 
natives as assistants at these schools, amongst whom were 
six sons of Sekhome, three of whom were competent teachers 
of elementary classes, and very diligent in their work. The 
other two days we taught in the church, and here endeavoured 
to ground these assistants, their wives and others, in the 
elements of a good education. Some of them can read and 
write their own language well, understand a little of arithmetic, 
have a general idea of geography ; and, last and best of all, are 
comparatively familiar with the New Testament, especially the 
Gospels. 

Yielding to the threats and entreaties of their father, two 
of Sekhome's sons deserted us about a year ago, and joined 



41 



THE FIRST PERIOD AT SHOSHONG 109 

Sekhome in the dances and other customs connected with 
the administration of the rite of circumcision. Sekhome was 
angry with the steadfastness of Khame and tliose who remained 
with us ; and by and by threats were heard that unless they 
also succumbed, their father would kill them. Inasmuch as 
Chukuru did not go the same length as Sekhome in his 
oppression, and doubtless instigated by jealousy against him 
who was now the father-in-law of his two eldest sons, Sekhome 
began to launch his curses and his threats against Chukuru 
also. It would be tedious to detail the course of this persecu- 
tion and oppression on the part of Sekhome. Suffice it to 
say, that so far as Mr Price and I could see, the conduct of 
the young chiefs was all that we could desire. This was 
especially true in the case of Khame. His praises were in 
the mouth of the whole tribe for his skill as a hunter, his 
bravery as displayed in the affair with the Matabele, and his 
affability to all in the town. White men visiting the place 
were equally loud in their praises ; he never begged any- 
thing from them ; he never beat them down in their prices ; 
he was always polite and obliging. And these opinions 
were not insincere ; repeated and valuable presents testi- 
fied to the sincerity of their respect and attachment to 
Khame. 

Sekhome was jealous of Khame's popularity and formed 
the determination of bringing him entirely over to heathenism. 
Although the daughter of Pelutona had been given to another 
man and had borne to him two children, Sekhome swore that 
she must be his son's head-wife ; he must take her or die. 
Khame pleaded that he was a Christian, and farther, that he 
never liked this woman. Sekhome answered, " When I 
sought missionaries for you, I had no idea that their teaching 
would thwart me thus ; I thought you would just be taught 
to read and write, your habits remaining unchanged. But 
learn this : whether you like the woman or not, whether you 
are a Christian or not, I am your father, and am determined 
to exact obedience to my wishes. Either you or I must be 
master ; and who ever heard of a father governed by his own 
son ? What could I say to Khari and the rest of my ancestors 
if I succumbed to my own child?" "Father, we obey you 
in all other matters ; we hunt the elephant and you get the 
tusks ; we kill the giraffe and the eland, and you get the 
meat and the hide : wherein do we defraud you of your right 
as our father ? Only in matters connected with the Word of 



no JOHN MACKENZIE 

God we cannot obey you ; we fear God, and would rather 
die." 

Such is a specimen of repeated conversations between 
Sekhome and his sons. On the one side there was anger 
and vindictiveness ; on the other firmness and gentleness. 

About three months ago Sekhome thought to thicken his 
plot by bringing missionaries into it. I had five men from 
him hired for a year, the wages of each to be a heifer. When 
six months had transpired and my new dwelling-house was 
nearly finished, Sekhome made his appearance and demanded 
the heifers. " Their work was done, the house was finished." 
I reminded him of the engagement, the year was only half 
expired. He did not contradict me, but doggedly demanded 
the heifers. Of course I could only refuse, as it would have 
been a most pernicious precedent. The chief went away 
swearing by a whole list of his forefathers that he would take 
the heifers himself. He at once removed every girl or boy 
in the employment of Price or myself, and this threat with 
reference to the heifers was soon put into execution, the day 
selected being a Sunday. On leaving church that day, 
Khame was informed by his father that he had now paid 
himself by taking six of Mackenzie's cows. Khame and 
Khamane (who had charge of my cows) firmly remonstrated 
with Sekhome, and although he spoke defiantly at the first, he 
finished by saying he would return the cows to them, seeing 
he had taken them from their post without their knowledge. 
This affair has not yet been settled ; I have offered a re- 
muneration for the six months' service of the men, more 
than is usually given, but without result. The chief keeps 
this matter as a weapon against us. Some four or five weeks 
ago, Sekhome resolved to bring things to the issue of a fight. 
The two parties lay in arms the whole night. Sekhome 
repeatedly gave orders to fire, but no one was found who 
would obey. He himself loaded a double-barrelled rifle 
recently purchased, upon which Khame said to him : " You 
see I am unarmed. Fire if it is in your heart to do so ; 
only I shall not fire at you but at your people." Seeing that 
general sympathy was with Khame, Sekhome ran and hid 
himself in his own back premises, shortly afterwards sending 
his mother to plead with Khame, assuring him that he should 
no longer desire to take Pelutona's daughter or to take a 
plurality of wives. What he could not give up was the death 
of Chukuru. Khame sent Mogomotsi, his uncle, to say to 



II 






THE FIRST PERIOD AT SHOSHONG in 

Sekhome that they had no wish to kill their father and that 
he might sleep in peace ; only they could not consent to the 
death of Chukuru, who was guilty of no crime. Although 
this was a night of anxiety to us as missionaries and to the 
Bamangwato, it passed over without any definite result. 
Sekhome was not able to carry out his evil intentions ; and 
his sons were too forbearing to take any advantage of the 
power they possessed. 

Such was the position of affairs when our dear friends Mr 
and Mrs Price started for a brief visit to Kuruman. I then 
took occasion to write to Mr Moffat, that although the young 
chiefs were at that time possessed of power, I had fears that 
their father would yet out-manoeuvre them. And this, I am 
very sorry to say, is what has taken place. 

Sekhome, seeing the popularity of his sons, had made 
some secret overtures to his brother Macheng to return to 
the Bamangwato, thinking that together their men would be 
more than a match for their opponents. This step on the 
part of Sekhome alienated the affections of many of his 
most trusted men, for in the coming of Macheng they saw 
a change of dynasty ; they were assured that the chiefs 
cattle, of which many of them were herds, would be taken 
from them by Macheng, and given to his own men, who 
had been his companions in exile. 

Sekhome was far from being sincere in his conciliatory 
promises to his sons. He now put forth his best efforts, 
not only as chief, but as sorcerer, to alienate the affections 
of his people from his sons. To one he was generous 
and kind, and profuse in his promises of future benefits : 
to another stern and severe, mysteriously threatening awful 
calamity to those who opposed his wishes; while to a 
third he represented his sons as now bereft of all judg- 
ment and prudence as the result of his enchantments. 
His sorceries and charms were in constant use. An ugly 
bit of wood was always in the chiefs hand, and supposed 
to convey great blessings to him, and great disadvantages 
to such of his adversaries as he might chance to meet or 
address. A little of it was bit off every morning by 
Sekhome, so that when he greeted his people their hearts 
might be drawn out in love towards him. Then medi- 
cines were continually scattered in the young chiefs' dwell- 
ings and in the paths which they frequented. Sekhome 
even went the length of asking two Englishmen who 



112 JOHN MACKENZIE 

arrived here a few weeks ago for some strychnine, or wolf- 
poison, as it is sometimes called in this country. It is 
certain he did not want this for the purpose he mentioned ; 
and it is presumed that he had formed the diabolical pur- 
pose of poisoning his sons or their friends. But whatever 
were his wishes, they were never reduced to execution, for 
the Englishmen refused to give him the poison. 

I had resumed the school for about a week, and was 
pleased with the new faces there in the alphabet class, as 
well as with the diligence of our old scholars, when on the 
evening of Thursday, 8th March, Khame came up to me 
hurriedly and said he had just learned that his father had 
made all his arrangements, and that he and his brothers 
were to be surrounded that night and to be put to death. 
It would seem that this bloody piece of work was given by 
Sekhome to the Matabele refugees who are in this town, 
and who number some 14 or 16. Khame met Lingake, 
their leader, after nightfall, and after some hesitation he 
admitted that such were the orders from Sekhome. The 
old chief had stolen a march on his sons. His men filled the 
crooked little paths at the back of Khame's houses ; thus he 
could take up no position there, for it was in the hands of his 
enemies. He determined, however, to rescue his own rifle ; 
and having done so, retired with his men to the neighbour- 
hood of the church built by the Germans here, but never 
finished ; and which is now a ruin. Mr K , an English- 
man, had a small shop close to this building, and here the 
young chiefs received their men and gave their orders during 
the whole night. The women and children were removed 
from the town during the night, Khame's friends climbing 
the eastern, his father's adherents the western side of the 
kloof. Mrs Mackenzie and the children retired to rest, 
and I believe slept soundly enough. Their slumbers were, 
however, rudely and suddenly disturbed by the report of 
firearms given in volleys. It was barely dawn of day, so 
we roused the children and put on their clothes, not know- 
ing what might happen. From all parts of the kloof were 
heard the sharp crack of the rifles, and deeper reports of 
guns of a wider bore. The natives never stint the powder ; 
it is thrown from the horn into the hand by guess, and 
thence into the gun, so that the noise produced in this 
narrow kloof in the morning in question was really very 
great. The firing, we afterwards learned, was begun by 



THE FIRST PERIOD AT SHOSHONG 113 

Pelutona's people, perhaps from a feeling that they ought 
to speak out first, seeing it was their daughter whom Khame 
refused. The young chiefs' ranks were so thin that they 
would have willingly postponed the fight. However, after 
having been fired at, they had no alternative. Khame him- 
self fired the first shots on his side, which was the signal 
for those volleys which we have referred to. Our house 
is some little distance from the nearest huts, so that no 
firing took place in our immediate proximity. The small 
hill which is opposite our dwelling was occupied by some 
of Sekhome's men, who fired into the part of the mountain 
above Chukuru's town, which was occupied by Chukuru and 
his men. Then two men mounted the hill at the back of 
our house, and fired a few shots across the kloof. It was a 
singular spectacle as seen from the hill between Mr Price's 
house and my own. The old church was held during Friday 
by about 15 men belonging to Khame against 3 large 
parties of Sekhome's men. A constant fire was kept up by 
Khame and Khamane and part of their men, from the 
mountains opposite the khotla and Pelutona's Town. But 
altho' an immense quantity of powder and lead was dis- 
posed of, our first fears as to the number of casualties 
from such a galling fire were allayed, when we came to learn 
that on Khame's side not one was killed after that whole 
day's firing, and only four wounded on Sekhome's side. We 
have ourselves seen two dead bodies lying exposed, one of 
which was of a woman, shot while drawing water for the 
men who were fighting behind the cover of the huts. I 
learned that two or three of the Englishmen at present 
on the place had got involved in the fray, having shot 
for a time on Khame's side. Their shop was so near the 
church, that they and their property stood in danger from 
guns in the natives' hands, altho' they were aimed at 
the church. A ball passed through one of the waggons 

while young K was asleep in it; another passed C's 

head as he went behind the church for protection. Those, 
however, who had fired a few shots, as they say, in self- 
defence, made their way to my house, where they were in 
safety ; only one of them stayed in charge of the goods, and 
I am happy to say no accident befell him. 

The firing was continued on Saturday, altho' not with 
such vigour ; and on Sunday it was all but silent. I had 
a sad prospect before me on that Sabbath morning, the 

H 



114 JOHN MACKENZIE 

town in possession of the enemy of the Gospel, its friends 
compelled to take refuge on the mountain top. How- 
ever, my course was plain ; I knew where I could obtain a 
willing and attentive audience, and resolved to climb the 
mountain to minister to those who, I felt assured, would 
welcome both my message and myself. The chief con- 
sented to my going, so I went up and held a short service 
with my friends who stood around, not, alas ! with Testa- 
ment and hymn-book in hand, but with gun and spear 
and shield. I learned that they regarded the affair as 
decided for the present, and against themselves. How- 
ever they were not without hope. A dissension might 
arise in the camp of their enemies. Some of their people 
whose services they had not been able to secure in con- 
sequence of the shortness of the notice which they received, 
might join their ranks. At anyrate they would hold their 
own in the meantime, and leave the future with God. It 
had been reported with great glee, by Sekhome's party, that 
Mogomotsi was shot while climbing the hill. I was glad 
to see him at the service, and to learn from his own lips 
that he was not even wounded. Upon my coming down 
in the afternoon, Sekhome took occasion to refer to my 
refusing to give him the heifers, and said that I was quite 
on Khame's and Chukuru's side. I told him I was no 
party to their quarrels, it being my duty to remain unen- 
tangled with such affairs. At the same time I said I felt 
I could not but tell him that in my opinion Khame was 
innocent, entirely so. Whether it was genuine or affected, 
the chief answered with great emotion : "I am glad you 
spoke that word, Monare ; Khame is my own son, my pro- 
vider, during all these years ; truly he is blameless. The 
blame is with Chukuru and Khamane." 

I have twice visited Khame's camp since that first Sabbath 
morning. He looks weary, but far from despairing. He 
hopes to occupy the kloof yet, although it may be some 
time before he is able to do so. He thinks that even in 
his present position his followers will have freedom, and 
the force of his example in attending to the claims of the 
Gospel ; and in this opinion I agree with him. At the 
same time Sekhome views my presence here with no favour, 
and he is jealous of my visits to the mountain. Even to- 
day, it seems, he told a trader that he was about to drive 
away all white men, missionaries and all ; and that the Word 



THE FIRST PERIOD AT SHOSHONG 115 

of God was the cause of the present war. Of course that 
is a threat which he is not likely to try to carry out. 
While I write (midnight), my premises are surrounded by 
armed men who are on the look-out for messengers to us 
from the young chief's camp. However, we shall do our 
best not to offend Sekhome, and wait for the dawning of 
a better day. We shall be as assiduous as possible in our 
ministrations to Khame's party ; and should the town be 
permanently separated, which is not likely, we hope to 
resume our labours among those who follow Sekhome. 

In a review of this affair, it must be gratifying to you, as 
it is to us, to witness the forbearance with which Sekhome 
has been treated by his sons. In olden times the sons of 
both Zulu and Bechuana chiefs were not of this spirit, but 
were swift in revenge; and a troublesome father was not 
reckoned a very formidable adversary. Let us cherish the 
hope, and offer up the prayer that they whose cause is 
just, and who, in exercising great Christian forbearance, 
have been worsted by the heathen wiles of their father, 
may enjoy the presence of God's comforting spirit in their 
adversity ; and that that adversity may speedily come to 
an end. — I remain, etc., John Mackenzie. 

Shoshong, y^djuly 1866. 

Rev. Dr Tidman. 

Rev. and Dear Sir, — I have to acknowledge receipt of 
your favor of the 9th January. 

My last to you, dated on the 19th March, contained an 
account of the rupture which had shortly before taken place 
in this town between Sekhome and his sons. I intend at 
present to continue the history of that disturbance, and to 
give you some idea of the present state of the town. 

Khame occupied the stronghold on the mountain referred 
to in my last, from the 12th of March to the 17th of April. 
At first each party was content to hold its own, and no real 
engagement took place, but for the last eight days of that 
period Khame's position was besieged by his father, who also 
set numerous guards at all the waters in the vicinity, for the 
purpose of preventing Khame from procuring water either 
for himself or for his cattle. Twice did the forces of Sekhome 
try to take the mountain by storm, and were each time re- 
pulsed ; but thirst eventually compelled Khame to submit to 
his father's terms, which were that he must return to the 



ii6 JOHN MACKENZIE 

town with his people. It being known that Chukuru and 
some others had no prospect of mercy from Sekhome, a party 
was formed under Khamane of such as agreed to flee for refuge 
to Sechele. These having taken their departure in the 
darkness of night, Khame and his party descended from 
their fastness next morning and entered the town. 

An event which seemed to irritate Sekhome and his party 
more than any other, took place about a fortnight after 
Khame left the town. Sekhome conceived that his un- 
expected victory over his sons had been brought about by 
means of his charms and his medicines ; at any rate, he gave 
out that such was the case. Persevering in the use of so 
trusted an auxiliary, the chief prepared a large quantity of 
medicines, sufficient to fill a tsessebe skin, and despatched 
in the night four men with this wondrous burden, which they 
were instructed to throw into the water drunk by Khame 
and his people. Whether the contents of the bag were 
poisonous or merely charms, I am unable to say. I 
believe the men themselves were " charmed " before pro- 
ceeding on this weird expedition, when it was said to them, 
" Go ! It will be dark wherever you are, no one shall see 
you, nothing shall harm you." But, alas for witchcraft ! 
the young chiefs' men in charge of the fountain that night 
heard the cautious footsteps of their midnight visitors, and 
reserving their fire till their enemies were close to them, the 
bearer of the medicine was killed on the spot. He was 
found next morning with the tsessebe skin above him. 
Nothing could exceed the vexation and rage which this 
event produced in the town. 

And strange to say, instead of directing their wrath 
against their opponents, it seemed to find vent in bitter 
speeches against the white people on the place, and espe- 
cially against myself. " What did the traders want with 
so much ammunition ? " And they were sure they had 
helped Khame; and, as for me, they were sure I did not 
go up the mountain for any good on Sundays. If I preached 
from the Word of God merely, well, then the Word of God 
itself was bad, and was the cause of all the strife. So loud 
was the talk against me that an English gentleman thought 
it his duty to repair to my household one Sunday morning 
to warn me against the risk of going up the mountain again. 
A native woman also came to me in secret and told me that 
my death had been loudly demanded by Sekhome's mother 



II 



THE FIRST PERIOD AT SHOSHONG 117 

and one or two head-men. Others proposed to whip me 
well, take my property from me, and send me away. This 
discussion was overheard by my informant's mother, who 
was in the employ of Khame's mother. Altho' hooted and 
called by very disreputable names, and altho' very sulkily 
received by Sekhome himself, I continued to get his re- 
luctant consent to my going to preach to the poor people 
on the mountain, and did so to the last. My visits were 
always looked forward to by the little flock. As soon as I 
could see their features I could see a smile of welcome 
already there. I had a better congregation on these occa- 
sions than we have had on our usual worship since Sekhome 
began the present system of opposition. As time wore on 
this bitterness diminished, and I was able to go from one 
camp to the other wath fewer insults, and at last had the 
happiness of doing something towards bringing about peace. 
Not being conscious of having wronged any one in the town, 
I felt pretty sure no one would harm me. One Sunday 
while I was taking leave of Khame on the brow of the hill, 
a man belonging to Sekhome's party got into position for 
taking a " dead aim " at some of us, laying his gun over an 
anthill and remaining in that position for a good while. At 
last he rose without firing and went away. I was told after- 
wards that as soon as I descended he came back to the 
same place, and then did fire. On another occasion Piet 
Jacobs, a Boer from the Transvaal, having business with 
Khame, got permission from Sekhome to pay the latter a 
visit. On reappearing at the brow of the hill he was fired 
at, as well as his two companions, and the firing was con- 
tinued while they slowly led their horses dow^n the steep 
path. They were unarmed, and certainly those who levelled 
their muskets at them were very bad shots, for they in- 
variably missed them, altho' not further than 200 or 300 
yds. It was Ralitlari who was guilty of this cowardly act, 
one of the sons of Sekhome who were persuaded by their 
father to give up attending both church and school. 

I am sorry to say that Sechele has been so cruel and so 
false as, first, to write a very friendly letter to Khame and the 
head-men with him, promising them a refuge in case of 
emergency, and mentioning by name Chukuru, Khame's 
father-in-law; and then, as soon as Khamane and Chukuru 
made their appearance in the town, to put the latter to 
death under circumstances of great cruelty. Altho' Chukuru 



ii8 JOHN MACKENZIE 

lived and died a heathen, he was much more friendly dis- 
posed towards the Gospel than Sekhome. He was also a 
man of ability, and in rank next to the chief He was 
invariably kind to Mr Price and myself. 

Altho' active warfare was brought to an end in the manner 
above described, Sekhome would not be satisfied, would not 
live in peace. Khame still went to church, still read the 
Bible, and until he gave up these he was not his son. Then 
in May a new element of discord appeared on the scene. 
When Sekhome believed that he would not be able to over- 
come Khame, he had sent in his desperation to his brother 
Macheng for assistance. Macheng naturally took some time 
to consider such an invitation, which, if sincere, was equal to 
an abdication of the chieftainship on the part of Sekhome, 
for Macheng is his superior according to the native way of 
counting rank. While Sekhome and his sons were at war, 
Macheng remained quiet at Sechele's, where he has been 
staying for some years ; but as soon as the war was over, he 
announced his intention of yielding to Sekhome's request. 
I have no doubt that Sekhome was sorry that he had ever 
made such a request, but he could not recall it ; so Macheng 
came. He was told in plain terms while at Sechele's, that 
he would be expected to put Khame and the rest of Sek- 
home's enemies to death. But instead of this, as soon as 
he entered the town he made Khame his friend ; and now 
Sekhom.e is at his wits' end, for into the pit which he dug 
for his own son, it is not at all impossible that he may 
himself fall. Those who know both Macheng and Sekhome 
say that it will be impossible for them to agree together, but 
whether they will fight or quietly separate, the future must 
disclose. Macheng expresses himself at present as favour- 
able to our work, but whether he would continue so had he 
full power as chief, is alas ! a question. 

We hope that those who continue true to Christ in this 
town, in this present distressing circumstances, will form a 
good nucleus for that church which we trust our Lord will 
yet graciously build amongst the Bamangwato. — I am, ever 
yours truly, John Mackenzie. 

One of the most thrilling events in this story 
of jealousy and intrigue, as well as of Christian for- 
bearance and nobility of spirit, occurred as the result 
of Macheng's presence in the town. Sekhome's bitter 



THE FIRST PERIOD AT SHOSHONG 119 

self-seeking could brook the domineering presence of 
Macheng as little as the Christian disobedience of his 
own sons. The result was that the crafty and cunning 
chief began to plot against the man whom he had 
invited to take his place among the Bamangwato. 
When on a certain day he found his own friends so 
reduced in numbers and so sunk in cowardice that 
they would not smite his enemies, even after he had 
given the signal in the public courtyard, nothing 
remained for him but an ignominious flight. That 
evening a sudden and strange excitement was observ- 
able among the natives on the mission premises ; there 
was a furtive pointing of the finger towards the 
mountain, and a whispering in the ear, and a rushing 
from one group to another ; men hardly dared to look 
at a solitary figure climbing down the rocks behind 
Mackenzie's house ; and yet all were fascinated, for 
it was Sekhome ! He had often threatened to take 
Mackenzie's life ; he had opposed with deep hatred 
Mackenzie's Christian influence ; he had tried to cheat 
him in the affairs of business ; he had been wont to 
malign him amongst his head-men. But on this night, 
when every man's hand was against him, and he 
was a fugitive from his own people, a man doomed 
to death, there seemed to him no safer spot in the 
world or more attractive than Mackenzie's own house. 
Once more he sat at the fireside of the faithful 
missionary, who earnestly pled with him to trust in 
the love and loyalty of his sons, and to cease from 
listening to the evil counsel of bad men. Late in the 
night he departed, was joined by a little group of 
faithful followers, and fled for a distant town a 
humiliated refugee. 

In 1867 Mackenzie undertook the building of a 
church. Hitherto his preaching had been conducted 
in the open air, which was indeed in accordance with 
the only possible native practice ; but he knew that 



I20 JOHN MACKENZIE 

the best results could not be obtained until some one 
place was set apart as the spiritual home of the 
Christian people. He tried, of course, to erect his 
church with the least possible expense, especially as 
he had not waited for the formal approval of his 
project by the Directors. He planned a building of 
60 ft. by 24 ft., and it was one ambition of his heart 
that it should have lancet instead of square windows, 
the frames for which he made with his own hands. 
The following brief account of this work again fails to 
do justice to the extraordinary amount of personal 
labour and deep anxiety in which Mackenzie found 
himself involved before the building was completed. 

Shoshong, December 1867. 
Rev. J. Mullens, D.D. 

Dear Brother, — I beg to forward a statement of 
accounts connected with the new church here up to this 
date. The mason's charges were very moderate, carpenter 
work costs nothing ; altho' no carpenter, I have managed 
the wood-work myself. The felling, sawing, and adzing of 
timber was done by natives of the place under my own 
superintendence. Some were hired for the articles mentioned 
in the account ; others worked a stipulated time for repairs 
to the locks of their guns. I was glad to do anything so as 
to lessen expense, M., after living quietly and steadily in 
our household for about ten months, managed to procure 
some brandy from a trader, got very drunk, abused all and 
sundry, then got ashamed and asked his pay before finishing 
the plastering and flooring, and took his departure. I am at 
present busy finishing the plastering, and hope our church 
will be open for worship the first Sunday of 1868. You will 
notice with pleasure that Mr Stewart, a trader in ostrich 
feathers, etc., who was engaged to lay half of the bricks, 
returned one half of his pay, ;£"i5, as his subscription to 
the church. I ought to mention that besides this subscrip- 
tion I received from both natives and Europeans considerable 
assistance in the loan of waggons and oxen, etc. 

I have already drawn on the Society £^^ for church 
building; and £,2"]^ 12s. 2d. remain due. Our friends 
in Scotland will give a little for this object. Beyond this 



THE FIRST PERIOD AT SHOSHONG 121 

I know no other quarter where help can be expected. 
It is true I have drawn the ^£4$ without your sanction; 
but then I did not know of our Society's pecuniary diffi- 
culties when I began to build. We must have a church 
here ; and the one now built is, I believe, suitable and 
substantial. I hope to hear from you on the subject, for 
it will be necessary to draw the £2^ pounds soon. 

With reference to our boys' subscriptions, Willie was the 
fortunate possessor of one ox from a cow which I gave him 
some time ago. We thought he ought to learn early to be 
unselfish and liberal, and laid the matter before him. It 
was not without an effort that he said he would give 
" Welshman " his much valued ox ; but his mind once 
made up, he seemed happy in his deed. Then Johnnie 
burst into tears "because he had no ox like Willie." He 
had only a year-old calf, and it so went to my heart that 
I effected an " exchange " with Johnnie on the spot, giving 
him a young ox for his calf. It was thus that our boys were 
able to give ;£"io for the new church. 

In attendance, the church is steadily improving, and a 
good many from the ranks of heathenism are learning to 
read. — I remain, ever yours sincerely, John Mackenzie. 

On the completion of the church Mackenzie 
resolved to make the day of its opening and dedica- 
tion one that should be remembered in Shoshong. 
This great feast day he has described in detail and 
with great sense of humour in his book.^ Throughout 
these years of building operations Mackenzie was 
carrying on his missionary work as best he could. 
The wide range and variety of his relations to the 
people undoubtedly strengthened his grip upon the 
town, for they had come to know him not only as the 
teacher, but as the practical, strong-willed worker and 
master of men. His personality created an impression 
which is best illustrated by one significant fact. 
Europeans who resided in those regions knew that the 
natives had nicknames for them. These nicknames 
were often based upon some physical peculiarity, and 



1 (( 



Ten Years North of the Orange River," pp. 461 ff. 



122 JOHN MACKENZIE 

were very seldom used in the presence of Europeans ; 
and hence they were rarely discovered. Some of 
them were very apt and very amusing. Mackenzie 
never knew what his nickname was, until told, late 
in life, by one of his sons, who discovered it while 
moving one day among the workmen on a building at 
Shoshong. The boy suddenly heard the lazy fellows 
who had been loafing, calling each other to work. 
They pointed across the open to a solitary figure 
moving rapidly and powerfully toward them. He 
had broad shoulders, a tawny beard, strong, clear 
eyes, a deep voice that could shake a native defaulter 
to the heart. As they pointed they spoke of "him," 
pointed out how " he" walked, admiringly praised 
"his" strength. The secret was out. They were 
speaking in the tones and phrases used by natives 
of a lion. " Tau" (lion) was Mackenzie's nickname, 
and " Tau" was his reputation among them. 

In the year 1867 South Africa and the world in 
general were startled by the announcement that a 
certain traveller. Captain Mauch, had found gold in 
the district of Tati, in the north-east part of the 
Bamangwato country. At once there began a move- 
ment of white people in that direction. The rumour 
spread that it was alluvial gold which was being found 
there, and that would have resulted, of course, in a great 
and sudden rush of gold-seekers ; but, as it ultimately 
turned out, gold in paying quantities could only be 
found in quartz. While this point was still under 
investigation the news that gold in any form had been 
found, led to the formation of prospecting parties and 
companies. Three separate claims to the sovereignty 
of the gold region were immediately set up by 
Macheng, Moselekatse, and the Transvaal Govern- 
ment respectively. The last named, in the year 
1868, sent Commandant Jan Viljoen as a commis- 
sioner to Moselekatse, ostensibly to negotiate with 



THE FIRST PERIOD AT SHOSHONG 123 

him for possession of the coveted district. While 
Viljoen was engaged in this formal embassy the two 
native chiefs were discussing their own claims. Mosele- 
katse claimed that he had conquered all that terri- 
tory even down to Shoshong. This preposterous 
assumption was met by Macheng, chief of the Bamang- 
wato, with the facts that his people had never been 
conquered, and that, while a certain tribe whom the 
Matabele had conquered had lived in that part of the 
Tati district, the entire district had always been used 
by Macheng's people, without dispute or disturbance, 
as their hunting-ground and a valuable grazing country 
for their cattle. Mackenzie thoroughly believed that 
the weight of the argument was very clearly in favour 
of Macheng. The prospect of an inrush of gold-seekers 
roused him to explain to the chief all that such an 
event must mean to his country. The matter was 
gone over in one long conversation after another, until 
Macheng clearly understood that if the gold-fields 
proved rich there would grow up within his dominion 
a large town of white men, most of them British 
citizens, whom he would be utterly unable to rule, 
and who, as things were, would be beyond the control 
of any European government. He received from his 
missionary the advice that he should immediately 
communicate with the British Government, state the 
facts from his point of view, and invite that Govern- 
ment to send a representative who should be a ruler 
of the white people in the Bamangwato country. It 
was of course reasonable that he should expect, as 
the chief of the country, to have some share in what- 
ever wealth the gold-fields were likely to yield. 
Macheng very eagerly agreed to this policy, and on 
March 29th, 1868, sent a letter to Sir P. E. Wode- 
house, at that time Governor of the Colony of the 
Cape of Good Hope. In this letter, after summarising 
the facts that gold had been discovered, and that the 



124 JOHN MACKENZIE 

gold district was within his territory, he proceeded to 
make his proposal in the following terms : — 

Now I conceive it my duty, in circumstances of such 
peculiar importance, to seek the counsel and aid of Her 
Majesty's Government. The Transvaal Government, through 
Commandant Jan Viljoen, desires me to hand over to the 
Republic the district in question, and assures me, in return, 
of the protection of the Republic should the gold-diggers 
molest my people. I shall decline to consider this or any 
other overture, until I hear from your Excellency. 

I. I beg, then, humbly to submit to your Excellency, as 
Her Majesty's representative, that the gold-field or fields in 
the Shashe district are situated in the country which belongs 
to me, as chief of the Bamangwato. The boundary line 
between my country and that of Moselekatse is at Makobe's 
old town. 

II. I would not willingly give up this territory without 
compensation. 

III. Having, however, no reason to believe that my claims 
as owner of the district in question would be ignored by Her 
Majesty's Government, I beg to state my willingness to leave 
the amount of compensation, and the manner of its payment, 
as questions for future settlement. 

IV. Whilst I have hithero lived on terms of friendship 
with English visitors, and with a few English residents, I feel 
utterly unqualified to govern such a community as that of 
gold-diggers is described to me to be. May it please your 
Excellency, these gold-diggers are your people; therefore I 
invite you, and I beg you, to come and occupy the gold 
country so far as it is at my disposal, and to govern the gold- 
diggers, in the name of the Queen of England. 

Meanwhile, and until I hear from your Excellency, it is 
my intention to encourage such gold-diggers as make their 
appearance, by granting them permits to dig, at a nominal 
price, by enrolling the names of such permit-holders, and by 
empowering one or more of their number to administer 
justice in the gold-field. And these steps I shall take in 
the earnest hope that speedily my weak efforts to sustain law 
and order amongst British subjects may be superseded by 
the advent of the power of England. 

In an accompanying letter Mackenzie said that the 



THE FIRST PERIOD AT SHOSHONG 125 

Europeans in that part of the country were, to a man 
very anxious that Macheng's proposals should be 
accepted and acted upon without delay. He pointed 
out that the country from the Orange River to Shoshong 
was occupied by tribes who were favourable to the 
English, and he believed that if the proposal were 
made to them by one in whom they had confidence, 
and if it were properly explained to them, even those 
tribes would unanimously vote for federation with the 
Colony. Thus early had this missionary, brooding on 
the problem of the influx and amalgamation of the 
races in South Africa, come to believe that the best 
thing for South Africa, the best thing for all the native 
tribes, would be that the British Government should 
gradually interpose a friendly and protective power 
between the native chiefs and the shock of European 
immigration. It is, in the light of subsequent events, 
a matter of interest to note, that at this time Mackenzie 
believed that the best plan would be to strive for this 
development of Bechuanaland through the Cape Colony, 
by means of some connection which he vaguely de- 
scribes as " federation." 

The excitement over the gold-fields involved Mac- 
kenzie in a great amount of anxious and sometimes 
exciting discussion and correspondence. He was used 
by the heads of distant prospecting companies as their 
best source of information. He did not shrink from 
doing all in his power to help those who were seeking 
most rapidly to occupy the new territory ; while he 
was, on the other hand, at the same time striving to 
secure for them the best possible form of government. 
He took great pains to secure specimens of the gold 
which was being found, and to forward these to the 
right persons, including Sir Philip Wodehouse. In the 
middle of that year, 1868, he made a journey to 
Potchefstroom in the Transvaal, for supplies. As this 
was the head-quarters of one of the most energetic 



126 JOHN MACKENZIE 

companies that had been formed, he took with him 
specimen pieces of gold quartz. His arrival at Potchef- 
stroom created an excitement which astonished him. 
A special edition of the Transvaal Argus was issued 
for the express purpose of giving the new facts which 
Mackenzie was able to convey to them. 

Transvaal, "Argus" Office, 6tkjuly 1868. 

Potchefstroom was thrown into a state of considerable 
excitement last Thursday afternoon, the 2d inst., when it 
became known that the Rev. Mr Mackenzie, so anxiously 
expected here, had arrived. The excitement became intense 
when it was ascertained that the rev. gentleman had brought 
intelligence of a late date direct from the Victoria Gold- 
fields, was a bearer of several letters from the diggers them- 
selves, some of which we now publish, and moreover, had 
brought a sample of gold from the new diggings. Of course, 
we, too, v/ent to see, having been attacked for the time being 
with all the symptoms of the gold fever. The sample was 
minutely inspected, and we now declare, on the sacred word 
of an editor, that the said sample requires but to be seen 
in order to dispel the strongest doubts of even the most 
sceptical. The "myth," as the gold discovery has been 
termed, has resolved itself into a stupendous fact. The 
samples produced by the Rev. Mr Mackenzie, which 
can now be seen at Mr Reid's, are two pieces of quartz, 
partly crystallised, very richly studded with gold, having solid 
pieces, some larger even than a pin's head, imbedded in the 
stone ; and yet the richer pieces, parts of the same stone, 
had already been forwarded to His Excellency, Sir Philip 
Wodehouse, and also to Graham's Town. These pieces we 
have not seen, but the rev. gentleman assures us that they 
are richer far than those brought by him to Potchefstroom, 
and that all are parts of the same stone taken from the sur- 
face, picked up close to where the diggers are now at work — in 
fact, at the outspan place. These pieces of quartz fully prove 
the superior richness of these new and vast gold-fields, to 
which the name of " Victoria " has been given, in honour of 
Her Majesty the Queen of England. 

One of the letters which he brought to the editor of 
the Argus from the captain of the prospecting party. 



THE FIRST PERIOD AT SHOSHONG 127 

announced that the gold-fields had been proclaimed 
British territory, and that the Union Jack already 
floated above the new district, which was called 
Victoria. So enthusiastic were the sentiments of the 
business people at Potchefstroom, and so grateful for 
the services rendered to them by Mackenzie, that they 
presented him with an address of welcome and of warm 
gratitude for what he had done on their behalf In 
this gratitude they included his colleague, the Rev. 
Roger Price of Bechuanaland. The address was signed 
by sixty Europeans, including names which were un- 
mistakably English, Scotch, Welsh, Irish, and Dutch 
respectively. On his way back to Shoshong Mackenzie 
was met by Sir Philip Wodehouse's reply to the appeal 
of Macheng. The Governor cordially recognised the 
great prudence of Macheng and promised to investi- 
gate the whole question, confessing that if the gold- 
fields came to be occupied by a considerable num- 
ber of British subjects he would feel himself under 
necessity to provide for their good government. The 
matter was reported by him to the Cape Parliament, 
which voted ;^2000 towards the expenses of a Parlia- 
mentary Committee, which it was proposed to send 
north, and upon whose report an intelligent policy 
could be founded. At the same time, in a private 
letter, the Governor explained that he was laying the 
whole matter before the authorities in London. Alas ! 
this was practically equivalent to an announcement 
that the matter was shelved. 

In the meantime the Transvaal Government, without 
waiting for the report of its Commissioner, Commandant 
Viljoen, had actually issued a proclamation, claiming 
the entire territory as belonging to them. The pro- 
clamation, of course, did not do this directly by 
naming only and specifically the Tati district, but 
sought officially to define the extent of its dominions. 
These were said to extend as far north as Lake Ngami 



u 



128 JOHN MACKENZIE 

and right down the whole length of Bechuanaland, 
even to Kuruman. " This included," said Mackenzie 
to the Governor, " more than a dozen native chiefs, 
who have never owed any allegiance to the Boers." 
This astute but characteristic step was, owing to pres- 
sure from various quarters, never acted upon. But in 
the meantime Mr Viljoen strove his best to secure the 
gold country for his own people. Since he failed to 
obtain any recognition of Transvaal ownership either 
from Macheng or Moselekatse,he deliberately set himself 
to achieve his end by another method, which was also 
not unfamiliar to his countrymen. He wrote a letter 
to one Lee, a Boer, but a British subject, claiming him 
as his friend, and urging him as a man of influence in 
the Matabele country to try and stir up a war between 
the Matabele and the Bamangwato over the ownership 
of the gold-fields. He, in black and white, said that 
he specially desired to see the " vagabonds at Shoshong 
set on fire." Of course, if the Matabele had made such 
an attack upon the Bamangwato and secured the gold- 
fields. Commandant Viljoen and his compatriots would 
immediately have found it right, on humanitarian 
grounds, to attack their ancient enemies and possess j 
themselves by righteous conquest of the Tati district. 
Into their hands in this way would also have fallen 
the territories of Mashonaland, where already it was 
known that gold abounded. The letter in which the 
Transvaal Commissioner made these proposals came 
into the hands of Macheng. Viljoen, on finding 
this out, immediately apologised to Macheng in the 
humblest terms, and offered, in reparation, to give him 
some cattle which, he said, he was about to get, or 
take, from another chief Viljoen's letter Macheng 
did not answer. 

As it turned out, the gold-fields at Tati were of i 
such a nature as to require much heavy and expensive 
machinery. The companies which first attempted to 



THE FIRST PERIOD AT SHOSHONG 129 

work them were not very successful, their operations 
being of course greatly hindered by the enormous 
cost of transport. The result was that the expected 
'' rush " did not take place, the Cape Parliament did 
not send its Commissioner, the British Government 
did not accept Macheng's proposals, and the whole 
subject for some years dropped out of practical 
politics. But it had considerably stirred up the minds 
of the native chiefs throughout Bechuanaland, and 
they henceforth thought of European ascendancy in 
South Africa with a new apprehension in their hearts. 
Moreover, the experience which he had received in 
these negotiations led Mackenzie to form still clearer 
and deeper views on the entire and vast subject of the 
relations of Great Britain to South Africa. Hence- 
forth, it may be said that his mind worked upon the 
difficult problems which he saw looming on the 
horizon, with a definiteness and earnestness born of 
this brief practical experience. 

In the end of 1868, Mackenzie set out on a 
southern journey with a double purpose. In the 
first place he must attend an important meeting of 
the Bechuana missionaries which was to be held at 
Kuruman in the following year, and thereafter he 
must go to Cape Town in order to send his two eldest 
children home to Scotland for their education. He 
had now a family of five children, consisting of three 
sons and two daughters. He was only a few days' 
journey from Shoshong when a letter from the 
Directors met him inviting him to go home on fur- 
lough. This unexpected invitation found him in 
many respects unprepared. He would have liked 
to see some adequate provision made for the work in 
Shoshong. Many things might have been said and 
done at that place to prepare the people, both black 
and white, for the management of various affairs in 
his absence. As soon as the news reached Shoshong 

I 



I30 JOHN MACKENZIE 

messages were sent after him expressive of regret, 
and not only of regret but of apprehension, that while 
he was away troubles of various kinds were likely to 
arise in the town, which his presence had staved off. 

At Kuruman a number of weeks were passed in 
pleasant intercourse with the brethren and in hard 
daily work on the Committee. The chief subject of 
discussion was the revision of the Sechuana Bible, 
with all the problems of translation and orthography 
which that involved. In the end of May Mackenzie 
arrived in London, and after a few days took his 
family down to his wife's home at Portobello, Edin- 
burgh. This place became the headquarters of his 
family in the old country for a quarter of a century. 
His wife's mother and an unmarried sister, the late 
Miss E. B. Douglas, assumed the guardianship of his 
children, relieving him of untold anxiety. On the 
death of her mother. Miss Douglas continued this 
work of love and self-sacrifice. A lady of rare culture 
and deep piety she became to a very large circle one 
of those angel aunts to whom so many families have 
learnt to render a peculiar reverence and gratitude. 

Mackenzie was of course speedily plunged into that 
strange form of recreation which the Christian world 
affords to its wearied missionaries and which is known 
as Deputation Work. He did not relish any more 
than others the constant journeyings and the endless 
series of meetings, at which the same story had to be 
told over and over again. His numerous letters to 
various members of his family, show that on this first 
campaign of platform oratory in England he was full 
of self-criticism and humility, almost of self-deprecia- 
tion. And yet that he was successful in the work is 
proved by the importance of the appointments given 
him, as well as by the direct testimony of his hearers 
in different parts of the country. He related with 
immense relish the appeal which one good lady made 



THE FIRST PERIOD AT SHOSHONG 131 

to him while driving in her carriage from a large 
meeting where he had spoken. She told him that 
missionary supporters were looking out for a . new 
hero — this one had died, and that one had retired — 
and that he seemed the one to take that place. For 
the sake of the cause they needed the popularity of 
a new man, and " Mr Mackenzie," she pleadingly 
added, " many of us think you are that man. But 
there is one thing you must do — you must talk more 
about yourself, you must tell us your own adventures 
instead of merely giving these addresses which we 
find very interesting, but in which you yourself have 
no place." Mackenzie fairly chuckled over the idea 
that he should stand up before an audience and 
talk about himself 

The list of deputation-engagements between March 
8th and April 8th, 1870, shows that he had engage- 
ments at eighteen different places, at many of which 
he had to give two or even three addresses in one 
day. This is only a specimen taken at random from 
his records of the work, which he and other mis- 
sionaries were and are expected to do month after 
month, during the larger part of their furlough. 

In the spring of 1870, not without much hesita- 
tion and diffidence, after urgent arguments from 
many friends, Mackenzie gave himself to the task of 
writing his first book, which he sent out under the 
title " Ten Years North of the Orange River : a story 
of everyday life and work among the South African 
tribes from 1859 to 1869." It was published by 
Edmonston & Douglas of Edinburgh, in the spring 
of 1 87 1, and has been for many years out of print. 
It was received with remarkable favour by reviewers 
of all types. In a style which had no pretensions, 
but which was characterised by clearness and force, 
he not only described his own experiences among 
the Bechuana and Matabele tribes, but also presented 



132 JOHN MACKENZIE 

original and valuable studies of their political organisa- 
tion, and their manners and customs. In an appendix 
of about fifty pages, he discussed the races of South 
Africa in a more scientific fashion, and also set forth 
the theory which he elaborated in after years con- 
cerning " the contact of Europeans with natives in 
South Africa." He believed himself to be the first 
writer who called attention to the fact which then 
was unknown and unsuspected, that South African 
races were not decreasing but very rapidly increasing 
under the British Government. 

As soon as possible after the completion of this 
book the Mackenzies sailed again for South Africa in 
the month of March 1871, leaving three of their 
five children at Portobello. Before they left that 
place Mackenzie and his wife were invited by the 
members of several churches in the town to a social 
gathering in the Town Hall, at which some valuable 
gifts were made to them. These included a handsome 
gold hunting watch, which served Mackenzie with great 
accuracy to the end of his life. 



CHAPTER V 

THE SECOND PERIOD AT SHOSHONG (l 87 I- I 876) 

John Mackenzie sailed the second time for South 
Africa on the s.s. Sweden, embarking at Dartmouth 
on March loth, 187 1. This vessel made what was 
at that date the fastest voyage on record, and reached 
Cape Town in twenty-seven days, thirteen hours. It 
is interesting to know that the very next vessel still 
further reduced the record by completing the voyage 
in twenty-four days, thirteen hours. Mackenzie sailed 
round to Port Elizabeth, and from there took ox- 
waggon through the Eastern Province. He made 
straight for Molepolole, which he was anxious to 
reach in time for the annual meeting of the Bechuana- 
land District Committee. When near Lovedale, in 
the Colony, he received from the Institution there the 
three young Bechuanas of whom he had had the care 
for some years, and who grew to manhood and 
womanhood in his service. Dr Stewart of Lovedale 
rendered an account for their board, lodging, and in- 
struction since April 1869, in the following terms: 
" To charges, £0, os. od." The Committee meeting 
at Molepolole exerted an important influence upon 
the history of Mackenzie. Ten missionaries were pre- 
sent, and the Committee dealt with a large variety 
of subjects connected with the work of the mission. 
The most important of all was the establishment of a 
" Seminary for the education of young men as school- 
masters and native ministers." It is only necessary 
to say at this point that the Committee arranged for 
the immediate establishment of such an institution, and 
appointed Mackenzie to be its first Tutor. When he 

133 



134 JOHN MACKENZIE 

continued his journey to Shoshong, it was, therefore, 
not only with the happy anticipations of a return to 
his beloved people, but under deep concern over this 
new enterprise and his part in it. 

During the months which had elapsed since they 
left England, the hearts of these parents had, of course, 
been much with the children whom they left behind 
in that distant Scottish home. There began at that 
time, therefore, that long series of letters to his 
children into which Mackenzie poured all the tender- 
ness and wisdom, and firmness and earnestness of his 
soul. With children, as we shall see, he knew how to 
be playful as well as serious, and these letters written 
to his own children in their younger years reveal a 
true interest in the very matters which attracted their 
attention and affection year after year. The following 
letter, written before reaching Shoshong to one of his 
sons, is thoroughly characteristic : — 

MOLEPOLOLE, SECHELE'S TOWN. 

My Dear Willie, — You will remember this place, I 
daresay. We got here about ten days ago. Our oxen were 
getting very tired j and I am very glad for their sakes that 
we are staying here for a little. There are ten missionaries 
here at present, and we meet together as a District Com- 
mittee, to consider all questions connected with our work 
here. 

Bill and Plaything (two favourite goats) are with us. We 
got them at Kuruman. They are both quite tame, and 
allow me to scratch their heads. They come running to 
you if you hold out your hand, hoping to get a piece of 
bread. They eat porridge also. Jamie is quite pleased 
with them, but he is a little afraid of them at present. 
Rosa (a dog) is here. She is a great favourite with every- 
body, and is very beautiful. Monk is now a large dog. We 
left it, you remember, at Kuruman, a little puppy. Garty 
(a much loved otter terrier) was at Kuruman, and came in 
with us, walking all the way. He is getting old, and is a 
little deaf; but we shall take special care of it for your 
sake, for we remember it is Willie's dog. I have also a fine 



THE SECOND PERIOD AT SHOSHONG 135 

large dog which I call Nero. Mr Good tells us there were 
lots of mice or rats in our house at Shoshong when he was 
in it ; so we are taking in two cats from this place. 

Ellen's cows are quite well. One is giving milk now ; the 
other will calve in summer. I shall tell you about yours and 
Johnnie's when I see them at home. 

Do you remember the Dam here.? I have bathed in it 
three times. It was rather cold, it being still winter here. 
Little Rogie Price bathes with his father, and is quite brave 
in the water. By the by, I hope you are both very careful 
as to how far you go in the sea when bathing in summer. 

At the time I am v^riting you are enjoying your vacation 
somewhere. We have been lately thinking and speaking 
much of you. When you get this letter the vacation will 
have again passed ; and you will be at work with your 
lessons. Dear boys, continue to be diligent and persevering. 
Little by little — and whatever you do, do well. 

I find that I am a little rusty in Sechuana. It will soon 
come back. At present the right word is not always at hand 
when I want it, so I have to express my meaning in another 
way. This happens once or twice in a sermon. I have 
very good news from Shoshong. The people are earnest 
about learning to read ; and the church was nearly full when 
a native passed through, whom I saw yesterday. I am de- 
lighted with the idea of again preaching and teaching at 
Shoshong. Pray for us, my dear boys, that our work may 
receive the blessing of God. When you say " Thy kingdom 
come," think sometimes of the Bamangwato, and of your 
parents' work. 

Be sure and continue in full love to one another. Don't 
keep secrets from one another. Don't quarrel. If you are 
angry with one another, make it up before you sleep. Stick 
to one another. And may your Father in Heaven Himself 
take care of you and bless you. — Ever your affectionate 
father, John Mackenzie. 

When new^s reached Shoshong that Mackenzie and 
his young colleague the Rev. J. D. Hepburn were 
nearing the town, the young chief Khame and two 
brothers rode out twenty miles to meet them. They 
arrived on August 23rd. 

Mackenzie received two letters of cordial welcome 



136 JOHN MACKENZIE 

after his long absence. The first was addressed to 
him by Macheng, who was still chief of the Banaang- 
wato, to assure him that he felt toward him as toward 
an old friend and brother. These warm sentiments, 
which at the time gave pleasure, alas ! as we shall see, 
did not continue. The other letter, so far as the 
sincerity of the writers is concerned, was much more 
valuable. It was signed by twelve European traders, 
at that time residing at Shoshong ; as expressing 
their spontaneous welcome to a missionary, whom they 
as a class are usually supposed to dislike, this letter, 
simple but earnest, gave Mackenzie much delight. 

The missionaries were profoundly thankful to find 
that both Khame and his brother Khamane had 
remained faithful. They had personally maintained 
public worship when no missionary was present, and 
carried on the day school, with the result that the 
congregation had increased. This remarkable fact 
may be placed alongside the keen observation made 
some years later by Mackenzie, that the native 
Christians belonging to towns where no white mis- 
sionary was settled, showed a higher average intelligence 
in Christian affairs than those living under the 
immediate tutelage of an ordained European. It 
appears to be the case not only that the Church of 
Christ has that sustaining spiritual force within it 
which can maintain and multiply life even among the 
rudest peoples, where the Word of God is openly read 
and taught ; but that sometimes the continual presence 
of an educated European retards the development 
of intelligence among an ignorant and unlettered 
people. The reason for the latter result probably is, 
that he comes to be regarded too much as an oracle 
whose every word is trusted, and whose assertion is 
taken as authoritative. Naturally the word of a local 
native teacher is more open to dispute, and is therefore 
more disputed. The friendly discussions which his 



THE SECOND PERIOD AT SHOSHONG 137 

teaching thus stimulates as well as guides, hasten the 
spiritual growth of the entire community. Of course, 
he himself has been taught by a missionary and he 
frequently makes a journey to the nearest Mission 
Station, where he discusses all those problems with 
the missionary, which his own parishioners have been 
hurling at his bewildered head. 

Mackenzie found that the political atmosphere at 
Shoshong was peculiarly uncertain ; at times it 
threatened to break into a disastrous storm. Macheng 
who had begun, as may be remembered, by admiring 
and trusting the two brothers Khame and Khamane, 
and had striven to secure their co-operation and sym- 
pathy, gradually became jealous of them, as their own 
father had been. He was a self-indulgent and sensual 
man, and he grew in jealousy and greed. His greed 
led him to lay hold on as many " presents " from both 
white men and black as he could, while his jealousy 
led him to consult the young chiefs less and less. 
This attitude of mind was publicly revealed by various 
incidents, but by none more strikingly than that which 
occurred in connection with Kuruman, the claimant to 
the kingship of the Matabele tribe. Moselekatse, the 
famous Zulu warrior, chief of the Matabele, had 
recently died, and his head-men had made his son, 
Lobengula, chief in his stead. The latter immediately 
took steps to make his position secure, but was con- 
fronted by the fact that many of his people believed 
him to be a usurper. The true successor of Moselekatse 
was, they said, an older brother whom Moselekatse had 
sent away in his childhood southwards to be brought 
up where his life would be safe. Inquiries were made 
with the result that a young man named Kuruman, who 
had long lived with Mr Theophilus Shepstone of Natal, 
was announced as the eldest son of Moselekatse and 
the true heir to the chieftainship of the Matabele. 
Kuruman gave proofs which at once convinced large 



138 JOHN MACKENZIE 

numbers, and he set out on the journey northwards to 
claim his kingdom. It may be a safe conjecture that 
Mr Rider Haggard, who was one of Shepstone's 
colleagues, founded one of the most interesting 
portions of his story, entitled " King Solonion's 
Mines," upon this very incident in South African 
history. Kuruman, however, lacked the wisdom and 
self-control of Mr Haggard's hero. When he reached 
Shoshong, and declared himself to Macheng, he asked 
for the loan of three regiments, announcing that he 
desired them not to fight against the Matabele but to 
act as an escort on his entrance into his own land. 
He appears to have taken for granted that Lobengula 
either would not fight against him, or if he did would 
be deserted by the entire tribe when they heard the 
simple announcement, made by chosen heralds, that 
Kuruman, their true king, was now in their midst. 
He went north in this foolhardy manner only to find 
that Lobengula had heard all about his movements, 
had paralysed those of the Matabele who were known 
to support his claim, and made arrangements to slay 
his heralds wherever they dared to lift their voices. 
This claimant to the throne was compelled to retire 
meekly to Shoshong, where he settled down for a time, 
and where his presence caused great disturbance of 
mind to his hosts. But his foolish movement made 
double mischief in Shoshong. For, in the first place, 
Macheng had placed those three regiments under an 
inferior officer, to the public humiliation of Khame, 
their real commander. And, in the next place, matters 
were complicated for Macheng himself, because some 
of Kuruman's servants had seized Matabele cattle and 
brought them to Shoshong. As long as Kuruman 
with his few soldiers and their plunder remained among 
the Bamangwato the latter felt themselves involved in 
what Europe would call " strained relations with a 
neighbouring government." 



THE SECOND PERIOD AT SHOSHONG 139 

But to return to Macheng's domestic affairs, his 
relations with the young chiefs were brought to a 
head through the treachery of a half-brother of the 
latter named Ralitlari. This man was discovered in 
a deep plot to secure either that Macheng should 
attack Khame or that Khame should attack Macheng ; 
and he attempted to bring about an open warfare by 
acting as the friend of each, and assuring each that the 
other intended to murder him. When he was discovered, 
and he fled from the town with three of Khame's 
horses, the young chiefs made the strange resolve to 
invite their own father Sekhome back to the chieftain- 
ship. Sekhome, who had long been plotting for this 
very thing, in a most inexplicable way declined it, 
when the invitation was brought to him by Khamane. 
The young chiefs had a strong ally in Sechele, the 
well-known chief of the neighbouring tribe the Bakwena. 
Having promised to send them help he did so in a very 
effective way. His soldiers, with his own son Sebele 
at their head, arrived at Shoshong quite unexpectedly. 
The ensuing incidents may be given in Mackenzie's 
words as follows : — 

Khamane arrived on Saturday, and the Bakwena were 
expected on the Monday night following. When Tuesday 
night came, and no Bakwena, Khame's anxiety was very 
great ; but in the middle of the night a scout arrived to 
announce that they were resting that night in the desert, 
some distance from the town, and that they would arrive 
next night. Strange to say, the secret did not leak out in 
the town. I never knew the Bamangwato keep a matter so 
close. Macheng was quite unsuspicious of imminent danger, 
although he knew that Khamane had been to see his father. 
He talked largely of the answer which he was to send back 
to Sechele ; and in the meantime ordered that a bag of sugar, 
the property of a trader, should be conveyed to his house, 
" as a present." In all such unworthy courses he was en- 
couraged by a few hair-brained youths who were his constant 
personal attendants. 

On Wednesday the chief went unsuspectingly on his rounds 



I40 JOHN MACKENZIE 

to visit the white men's shops, and to demand the customary 
basinful of brandy from each. But at gray dawn on Thurs- 
day morning Macheng's heavy slumbers were rudely disturbed 
by a discharge of musketry. He lay down, the sensual, 
stupid, but conceited chief of the Bamangwato ; an hour 
after dawn he was an outcast, almost without a friend. As 
soon as he heard the discharge of fire-arms Macheng, partially 
dressed, hurried from his hut. He soon found himself in 
the hands of the Bakwena and Bamangwato, under Seretse, 
a brother of Khame. It was Sechele's desire that Macheng 
should be shot, but to this Khame refused to consent. " Kill 
his worthless and bloodthirsty attendants," said Khame, "but 
let Macheng himself go free." And so Macheng, when seized, 
was roughly told that he was indebted to Khame for his life, 
and was ordered to leave the town without delay. Six of his 
counsellors fell near to him. Several Matabele attendants of 
Macheng were also shot. Corpulent and indolent, Macheng 
cut a sorry figure on Thursday morning. Without shoes, 
without shirt, so overcome with fright and unwonted exertion 
that he was ready to fall down, he was driven from the town, 
forced to take refuge in the mountains at the foot of which 
it is built. Those of the Bamangwato who were taken by 
surprise, like their chief, hastened to that part of the town 
where Macheng took up his first position. Khame, however, 
afforded them an opportunity of retracing their steps and 
returning to the town. At the head of a party of horsemen 
he approached this harmless crowd, and shouted, " He who 
is for Khame, let him return to the town." The people came 
back almost to a man ; and Macheng was left to scramble 
up the mountain as best he could. Twenty of Macheng's 
supporters fell in the engagement in the town, and two 
Bakwena. None of Khame's men were hurt, although they 
were always in the front. A native town is an awkward 
place for warfare ; an enemy may be within some hut or 
behind some fence, and take dead aim at you before you are 
aware. So the Bakwena set fire to the town in order to 
dislodge its occupants. This is not at all the serious matter 
which the burning of European houses would be. The only 
grave part of it was the burning of the corn within the large 
clay vessels in which it is stored, and which are roofed over 
with grass, like a hut. The conflagration might have become 
a very serious one ; but fortunately the wind soon fell, and 
Macheng's few followers were soon driven away ; so the 



THE SECOND PERIOD AT SHOSHONG 141 

women were able to return and keep the fire from 
spreading. 

In the afternoon some of Macheng's followers stationed 
themselves among the lofty crags overhanging the wells 
where the Bamangwato women draw water. This is not 
far from our houses, so we could witness the consternation 
among the water-drawers when the first bullet was fired 
amongst them. But Macheng's men did not confine their 
attention to the women in the river. Mr Hepburn was 
superintending some men who were sawing timber, when a 
bullet, evidently aimed at their party, passed close to Mr 
Hepburn's head and fell a little beyond the sawpit. Another 
struck the ground a few feet in front of Mr Hepburn's door. 
A third struck the ground close to where I stood. About 
this time a number of Bakwena had come to our premises to 
greet the two Bakwena students, and several Bamangwato 
men were also near our houses ; perhaps this was the reason 
why Macheng's few followers directed their bullets as 
they did. Having annoyed us for about two hours, and 
effectually prevented our drawing of water during that time, 
they were driven from their stronghold by Khame and 
Khamane. After living for a few days in secluded retreats 
in the northern part of the range, Macheng turned toward 
the east, and while I write, is in the Machwapong hills on 
his way, it is understood, to Mankoroane's country. The 
unfortunate man has not a single friend among all the neigh- 
bouring chiefs. He quarrelled with everyone during the 
short period of his reign, and now he has to seek refuge in 
a country where he is unknown. 

In the public gathering which took place after the fight 
was over, Sebele publicly informed the Bamangwato that 
Sechele had sent in his men not to assist Sekhome, but to 
assist Khame. Some of the Bamangwato head-men also 
declared in their speeches that " they saw Sekhome in 
Khame -, they did not wish for another ! " Khame himself 
spoke with great prudence : " I have not fought for the 
chieftainship ; I have fought for my life. As to my father, 
I have asked Sekhome to come home, and sent Khamane 
for him ; but he refused. I shall not ask him again. It is 
for you Bamangwato to send for him, and to bring him back 
again." He thus throws the weight of the responsibility 
upon the head-men. On the whole, I sincerely hope that 
neither Macheng nor Sekhome may ever be chief of this town. 



142 JOHN MACKENZIE 

One of the results of this revolution was that 
Kuruman had to leave Khame's country. Unfortu- 
nately the cattle which he had left at Shoshong were 
carried off by the Bakwena as their legitimate booty, 
a circumstance which afterwards involved some deli- 
cate negotiations with Lobengula. 

It is surely a matter of intense interest that 
Mackenzie, at this crisis in the history of the tribe, 
retained the absolute trust of the leaders of all the 
parties who were warring against each other. At one 
and the same time he was keeping in safety some 
property for Sekhome, the exiled chief, and the 
originator of so much wickedness and mischief among 
the people ; he was also made the depositary by 
Macheng of a considerable amount of money in 
English gold, and Macheng was Sekhome's rival and 
supplanter ; he also acted as the trusted and most 
willing adviser of Khame, around whose personality 
the hatred of the two former for each other had been 
exasperated, and upon whom also it was concentrated. 
Yet none of these rivals for the chieftainship seems to 
have feared lest this missionary should use his power 
over their possessions, to the disadvantage of any of 
them. 

Khame was now, to all appearances, formally estab- 
lished as the ruler of the Bamangwato tribe through- 
out its wide extent of territory, He entered upon his 
task not without anxiety, yet with a certain quietness 
and confidence characteristic of him. He was very 
speedily confronted with the two problems which, as 
far as his direct rulership was concerned, appear to 
have caused him the greatest perplexity. The first of 
these came from the fact that, as chief of the tribe, he 
was officially responsible for the performance of certain 
heathen rites and ceremonies. It was well known 
that, as a private man, he had even at great cost cut 
himself off from many of the traditional customs of 



THE SECOND PERIOD AT SHOSHONG 143 

his people ; but it seemed to many that he would be 
compelled to give way to some extent when it came 
to the performance of those ceremonies which the 
entire people believed to be essential to their pros- 
perity, and capable of due celebration only by the 
chief The following account of the way in which 
Khame met this difficulty was given by Mackenzie. 

Events soon transpired which showed Khame that his 
position would be one of great difficulty. On Saturday last 
he came to consult me concerning his first collision with 
heathenism ; he informed me that some of the head-men, 
without meaning any offence to him, had suggested the per- 
formance of some heathen ceremonies in which the chief had 
to bear a part. The people, it seemed, were about to begin 
to dig their gardens. This was always done with ceremony 
and charm. The question then was, Were the people to be 
told simply to go and dig, without any ceremony, or could 
the seed-time be publicly inaugurated by a Christian chief in 
a Christian way ? At harvest time there were also ceremonies. 
Now, the heathen ideas embodied in the ceremonies were 
good ones. In the spring-time by charm and spell and 
strict observance of use and wont, the heathen hoped to 
propitiate the Unseen and to get a good crop. When the 
chief began the harvesting, it was with feelings of gladness 
for the fruits which had come to maturity. Why should 
not a Christian Bechuana chief issue his " letsemma," 
inaugurate his seed-time, by public prayer to Almighty 
God the Maker of Heaven and Earth? And why not 
"loma" in the time of harvest, with thanksgiving and 
praise to Him Who crowneth the year with His goodness ? 
Evidently such a public service would be a blessing to 
Khame himself, giving him an opportunity publicly to pledge 
himself as a chief to those customs which he had so faith- 
fully followed in a less prominent position. From the stand- 
point of the old heathen people, such a service seemed also 
to be desirable. The town was not left utterly without a 
" custom " ; there was something to which their ignorant 
minds might cling — something simple and better than the 
old charms. Then, as to the young men who are " adherents " 
but not Christians, such a service would be both a help and 
a pleasure to them, giving them an answer to those who 



144 JOHN MACKENZIE 

would draw them back, and strengthening in their minds an 
idea of the suitabihty of Christianity to meet their require- 
ments as a people. So I suggested to Khame that he should 
begin a new thing in the country, and issue his "letsemma" 
as a Christian chief in a Christian way. Inasmuch as every 
chief has the right to choose the nation from whom his son 
shall receive his doctors or priests, Sekhome had only 
exercised that right in choosing for his sons a missionary 
instead of priest. The teaching of the missionary was 
therefore entitled to at least as much public respect as that 
of any native doctor. By publicly acknowledging his firm 
adherence to Christianity at the outset of his career, I 
hoped also that Khame would escape molestation from the 
heathen party in the future. 

So, on Sunday morning last, our church was empty. 
Khame assembled the Bamangwato in the public court- 
yard. The proceedings were commenced by the young 
chief in a short speech in which he emphatically announced 
his unwavering determination to adhere to Christianity. He 
did not prohibit heathen ceremonies, but they must not be 
performed in the khotla, and as chief he would contribute 
nothing towards them. The service in which the missionary 
was about to engage was his " letsemma " ; after it they 
might dig where they pleased. Whoever wished his seed 
to be charmed or his garden to be charmed could do so, at 
his own expense ; but he had no such custom. His speech, 
which was a very clear one, was well received : and I felt 
when he sat down that he was further from heathenism in 
his own estimation and in the minds of his people than 
before he made it. Then followed the religious service — 
similar to our ordinary morning service. We sang the 
Sechuana version of the looth Psalm ; I read the 33rd and 
65 th Psalms, and then engaged in prayer, which of course 
had reference to our special circumstances. Inasmuch as 
Khame had informed the people that I was not only to lead 
their prayers, but also to address them, I had an opportunity 
of making a short speech to the assembled Bamangwato. 
The points which I aimed at establishing were the suitability 
of Christianity as a " custom " or religion ; that, therefore, 
under Khame's sway, they were not to anticipate calamity 
through having given up the public recognition of the old 
customs ; it was a religion which had come to them from no 
mean nation, but one whose skill and prowess were patent 



THE SECOND PERIOD AT SHOSHONG 145 

to them ; it was not for one nation but for all ; and it had 
made their young chiefs truthful, kindhearted and brave — 
their praise was in every tribe. Let no one therefore hinder 
them or molest them in God's service in the future; but 
rather let all learn to love and to trust the God of Khame 
and Khamane. 

The speech was well received ; indeed audible applause was 
given to it. The service was concluded in the usual way, 
and thus ended Khame's public and solemn recognition of 
God and of Christianity among the Bamangwato people. 

His other great difficulty Khame found among the 
white traders, who either had come to reside at 
Shoshong or passed through the town from time to 
time in large numbers. On the last day of December 
1872, he went to Mackenzie to say that he wished to 
assemble all the white men in order to make known to 
them his laws with reference to strong drink. He had 
before explained his position to the traders as indi- 
viduals, and a great improvement had resulted ; but 
fresh men brought the hated commodity in, and the 
traffic was therefore maintained, though in a mitigated 
form. He invited Mackenzie to be present at the 
meeting. The next morning early the chief again 
visited the missionary's house for further consultation, 
and they went down together to the khotla. All the 
white men, to the number of twenty-one, were brought 
together, several coming only after repeated summons 
had been sent to them. His speech, which was in- 
terpreted by Mackenzie, was a short one indeed, but 
very clear, direct, and authoritative. He simply and 
formally announced his law about " boyalwa " (strong 
drink). It was henceforth illegal to sell it in the town, 
or even to bring it into the country. After this warning, 
all brandy discovered in the town would be immediately 
destroyed, its owner would be fined, and expelled be- 
yond the borders. Then Mackenzie made a short 
statement, in which he explained that this movement 
had in no way been prompted by him, but was entirely 

K 



146 JOHN MACKENZIE 

the outcome of Khame's own thought. The traders, 
as a whole, appear to have approved of Khame's 
action. His right to make the law, and the fairness 
of the conditions under which he announced it, were 
universally acknowledged. Some of them rejoiced be- 
cause their own servants would thus be delivered from 
temptation ; others, who were addicted to drink and had 
often disgraced themselves in the town, while they did 
not loudly acquiesce, were believed by those who knew 
them to be secretly glad that they themselves would 
be freed from temptation. The following sentences 
from Mackenzie's memorandum are of some interest, 
as illustrating at once the spirit of the traders and of 
the chief. 

C said, " Well, now, there must be some loop-hole 

somewhere. We must not begin and smuggle, for if we do 
so, it will be worse for all parties than the thing is at present. 
We all like a little drink now and then, especially when we 
meet after a long separation ; we have been always accus- 
tomed to have a little drink. Does the chief mean to try 
and stop that ? " 

I interpreted the question to Khame, who replied, " Ever 
since we saw the first white man we have been accustomed 
to see them pull out a bottle and giving one another some- 
thing to drink. For a long time we thought it was medicine, 
and it did not concern us, for it was not given to black men. 
I do not want to interfere with your personal habits, so long 
as they do not become a nuisance in the town. But if, when 
you give one another drink, you turn round and give it to 
my people also, then I shall regard you as blame-worthy." 

M said, " What the chief wants to put down is a 

canteen for black fellows, and I must say he is quite 
right." 

I said I thought what he wanted to put down was a can- 
teen for any fellows, white or black. 

B made some reference to drink being allowed to 

pass. (He has some on his waggon.) C also wanted 

to know distinctly what was the law with reference to drink 
going through the country ? 

Khame, in reply, said, " What other country do you want 



THE SECOND PERIOD AT SHOSHONG 147 

to destroy with it ? Why not let it alone ? Why should it 
pass and destroy others? Are there not people like our- 
selves on in front ? " 

This did not, alas ! end Khame's troubles in relation 
to this universally troublesome problem. 

In the year 1873, Mackenzie found it necessary to 
make a journey into Matabeleland, in order to procure 
supplies of corn for the students of the Seminary who 
were now living at Shoshong. The journey was very 
rapidly made and the stay in Matabeleland was brief, 
but it enabled him to make a survey of affairs in that 
country alike from political, commercial and religious 
points of view. He recalled vividly the conditions 
which existed during his last visit in 1863 and made 
some interesting comparisons. 

His purely private mission into that country was 
combined with an informal embassage on behalf of 
Khame. Since Khame's accession to the chieftainship 
of the Bamangwato several communications had passed 
between him and Lobengula, each chief being advised 
in the matter by the resident missionary. The result 
was that the negotiations even on delicate points had 
been carried on amicably. Khame disclaimed all 
desire to quarrel with his neighbour, and the latter 
wrote that his heart was " white " towards Khame, and 
that he desired to see his face. Notwithstanding these 
protestations of friendship, some of Lobengula's soldiers 
had attacked one of Khame's cattle posts, killing and 
stealing in the usual fashion. A letter on this subject 
was carried to Lobengula by Mackenzie. The Zulu 
chief made ample apologies for what he described as 
an " unauthorised movement " by his war party, for 
which he held them guilty. He repeated his invitation 
to Khame to pay him a personal visit, and he pledged 
himself for the future not to send a war party against 
Khame on any account, without first seeking an ex- 
planation of any difficulty that might arise between 



148 JOHN MACKENZIE 

them. On the whole Lobengula behaved to Khame's 
missionary with great kindness and hospitality. 

Mackenzie, in a letter to Dr Mullens (September ist 
1873), described his impressions of this part of South 
Africa, and made a most remarkable forecast regarding 
the fate of the Matabele tribe. He refers in strong 
terms to the beauty and richness of the southern part 
of Matabeleland, formerly known as the Makalaka 
country, where Buluwayo, the capital, was placed 
among the Matoppo hills. " From the neck or back- 
bone," he says, " near the Shashane river we obtained 
a view of the finest and most extensive landscape upon 
which I had gazed since I stood on the ridge of the 
Katberg and looked southward upon the beautiful 
scenery of the Kaffirland frontier of Cape Colony." 
On all sides he noted the evidences that this beautiful 
region had within a few years supported a large 
population. Alas ! the terrible Matabele had swept 
them away, leaving only a " few scared Makalaka who 
came to our waggons to sell corn." Many of the 
Makalaka had taken refuge among the Bamangwato ; 
the rest had been massacred, only the little children 
being spared to be brought up as Matabele warriors. 
He did not visit Mashonaland, that rich farming and 
gold-bearing country which lies far to the east and 
north-east of Buluwayo, but he heard much about it, 
and thought much concerning its relations to the future 
history of the country. 

Mackenzie was confronted by the fact that the 
earnest and devoted labours of capable missionaries 
for fourteen years had not resulted in the baptism 
even of one convert to the Christian religion. 
Amongst these missionaries there was William 
Sykes, one of the bravest men who have touched 
South African history. It was he who on one 
occasion so incurred the anger of Moselekatse, the 
father of Lobengula, that everyone expected he 



THE SECOND PERIOD AT SHOSHONG 149 

would be put to death. The Matabele were amazed 
to find that he deliberately went on a personal visit 
to the enraged and savage monarch, and yet returned 
in safety. " I said to them," he reports, " as I had 
said to their chief on the occasion of his anger, that 
I never saw the man that I feared. I always did 
what was right to everyone and feared no one. I 
would do what was right to Moselekatse, but would 
not fear him." If this attitude of mind had gained 
the respect of the unscrupulous Zulus, it had at least 
failed to soften their hostility to the Gospel of Christ. 
In 1873 Mackenzie could find no increased interest in 
the message of the missionaries, although he met with 
a few who knew something about its contents. He 
attributes the toleration of the missionaries as teachers 
by the Matabele chief to the simple fact that none of 
his tribe had " as yet announced his serious intention 
of abiding by the law of Jesus Christ as his ruler for 
life. ... So far as I could judge, it would at present 
be a critical business for either chief or head-man or 
common soldier to make such an announcement." 

Concerning the future of the Matabele, Mackenzie 
made this most interesting prophecy. Just because 
the law of Christ would entirely overturn the whole 
structure of Matabele society there was no immediate 
hope of converting them ; and yet he adds, " As a 
tribe or collection of tribes they are probably doomed ; 
their sins as a tribe have been very great, and of late 
have been aggravated by the light which the Gospel 
casts on their cruelty and bloodthirstiness." " Is it 
not a most interesting problem," he proceeds. " What 
will the Almighty do with the Matabele ? For my 
own part, I look on with the profoundest interest to 
the solution of this question." He did not believe 
that the tribe could occupy for many years longer 
the position which it did. What would the end be ? 
It must be remembered that this letter was written in 



ISO 



J^ 



MACKENZIE 



1873, when only a few traders and missionaries had 
visited that region, and yet the following is the outline 
of coming events as they presented themselves to his 
eye. First, he knows that there is gold to be found 
in Matabeleland, even far to the north-east of Inyati. 
Further, he knows that there is a rich high-lying 
country to the east of Matabeleland, splendidly 
adapted for farming, which was formerly occupied 
by the Mashona, but was now unoccupied. Many 
Transvaalers to his knowledge had cast eager eyes 
upon this region, and an attempt had been made 
already to form a party of Boers who should " go 
there and occupy the country by force." From this 
quarter, from this deserted region, Mackenzie in that 
year conceived that the Matabele tribe would some 
day meet its fate. The white settlers in Mashonaland 
would begin to influence the tribal life of the Mata- 
bele. The question would then be, Can they " abide 
this shock and subside into a peaceable tribe," or will 
they " with blind fury rush against fate," in which 
case the tribe would be destroyed ? It is surely a 
remarkable fact that twenty years afterwards this fore- 
cast was fulfilled almost to the letter. It was the 
gold and farming regions of Mashonaland which first 
were occupied by the Europeans of the British South 
African Chartered Company. From their policy in 
this region Lobengula found his tribe involved in 
complications which led to war ; for they could not 
" abide the shock " of a European community on their 
borders ; they " rushed with blind fury against fate," 
and were destroyed. Let us hope that the other part 
of the prophecy is now being fulfilled — " In the de- 
struction of the tribe there will no doubt be found a 
remnant — humbled and ill at ease — to whom the 
gospel will speak with a power which it never before 
exercised." 

From this interesting journey Mackenzie returned 



THE SECOND PERIOD AT SHOSHONG 151 

to his work at Shoshong. Here he continued his 
teaching of the students day by day, and his close 
attention to the general work of the station. He was 
able to report in the letter from which we have just 
quoted that seven had recently been admitted to the 
communion of the church, and that one of these was 
a Makalaka, the " first of that people who has been 
baptised, so far as I know." He adds that there were 
others whose names were before the church, and whom 
they hoped before long to receive into its fellowship. 

The atmosphere of politics at Shoshong continued 
to be very stormy. In the end of 1872 Khame and 
Khamane had for some inscrutable reason sent an 
invitation to their father Sekhome to return to Sho- 
shong. Up to this time the two brothers had for the 
most part lived together in mutual affection and con- 
fidence, although their watchful shepherd-missionary 
saw some grounds for anxiety in their attitude towards 
one another. But as soon as Sekhome returned, his 
crafty and subtle mind proceeded to find a way of 
overthrowing his hated eldest son. His plan now was 
to sow the seeds and encourage the growth of jealousy 
in the heart of Khamane, the younger brother. Alas ! 
he found in Khamane a disposition which he was able 
to adapt to this diabolical purpose. The two became 
very confidential, and carried out various little schemes 
which soon revealed to the whole people that they 
were allied in sentiment against Khame. Khame 
bore this new attack with his usual calmness and 
dignity. But at last, at the end of the year 1873, 
finding himself humiliated before the whole people 
by the attitude of his father and brother, he quietly 
left the town and went to a magnificent fountain 
called Serue, about 70 miles north-east of Shoshong, 
announcing that there he would receive any of his 
people who wished to follow him. To the conster- 
nation of the triumphant plotters, almost the entire 



152 JOHN MACKENZIE 

town moved out, and tramped to the camp of their 
beloved chief. Khame got the best and the most of 
his subjects around him, and was their actual chief, 
without having to fight or even to denounce Sekhome 
and Khamane. Finding that his position at Serue 
laid him open to attack from other enemies, he re- 
solved to make a still more daring venture, and carried 
his tribe north with him as far as Lake Ngami, a 
distance of more than 200 miles. His magnificent 
generosity of spirit was shown even on this journey, 
when, although a number of his cattle were carried 
off by the emissaries of his father, he allowed a 
waggon, with a most valuable load belonging to 
Khamane, to pass through his ranks unmolested. In 
a few months, however, he returned with a small force 
to Shoshong in order to demand the property which 
had been taken from him. When he saw how weak 
was the influence of his rival relatives, and how deep 
had been their duplicity and unscrupulous their 
jealousy, he decided, during the brief negotiations of 
this visit, to return as soon as he could with all his 
people and take possession of the capital of his country 
once more. 

This purpose was carried out in the beginning of 
the following year, when Khame brought the entire 
portion of the tribe that had seceded with him back to 
Shoshong. His movements were of course not 
unknown to Sekhome. The latter had employed 
the intervening months to good purpose in the way of 
consolidating the people who remained under him, and 
animating them with the desire to resist Khame's 
return. He sent scouts in every direction to discover 
the line of Khame's march, so that he himself might 
choose his battle ground. Unfortunately for him none 
of his scouts discovered the direction of Khame's 
movements until the latter had reached Seshosho, the 
main fountain from which the town derived its water 



THE SECOND PERIOD AT SHOSHONG 153 

and from which it was named. When Khame sent a 
challenge to his father and brother to come and fight 
for the possession of this vital spot, they realised at 
once that his strategy had given him the advantage. 
The story of the fight which ensued has been very 
vividly told in the volume of Mr Hepburn's letters, 
entitled " Twenty Years in Khame's Country." The 
following quotations from a letter by Mrs Mackenzie 
to her daughter in Edinburgh will also help to put 
the events more vividly before the reader. 

We arrived home, after seeing dear Jamie (their third son) 
off on his long journey, on Friday the 29th January. We 
had hoped that during our absence Khame would have come 
and had his fight over, but on nearing the town we were 
surprised to see how quiet the outskirts of the town were — 
no cattle, no goats or sheep or herds, or little children playing. 
We at once suspected what was going on. Presently one 
of the traders came out to meet us, and told us that Khame 
and his army were close at hand, that the women were in the 
mountain ; and we could see along the mountain sides groups 
of armed men on the watch. This was not a pleasant 
welcome, but it was what God had prepared for us. 

Papa had a great deal of watching both by day and night ; 
and all the while we were watching for the fight. On 
Tuesday evening the war-cry resounded. Mr and Mrs 
Hepburn and their two children came over for safety and 
for company too. Their house is in a very exposed position. 
Khamane's and Sekhome's wives also came for safety ; they 
occupied the dining-room. On Wednesday morning we 
heard guns up the kloof, and before we knew what we were 
about Khamane's men were flying "helter-skelter" down 
the kloof, followed by Khame's men firing at them with 
all their might. It was a dreadful hour, for we knew that 
all these bullets were not being fired for nothing. In a 
trice Khame's people were victorious and in possession of 
the town. Sekhome and Khamane fled to the mountain 
with a number of their people. At another part of the 
mountain Khame, who had only some of the old men and 
boys with him, fell into the hands of another part of 
Sekhome's army and fared rather badly, and had to retreat ; 
but of course the best of his people were here at the most 



154 JOHN MACKENZIE 

important part of the fight. Khame came in the next 
day, looking very thin and haggard. He has had a great 
deal of toil and anxiety, and longs for peace. I hope it 
is near at hand now. Still the fighting is not over, and 
a good many matters have yet to be settled. 

But I must tell you of the danger into which dear Papa 
was thrown. That morning, when the alarm was raised, 
our two herds fled. Papa and some of the students took 
the cattle up the kloof to give them water; before they 
had done so they found themselves in the midst of the 
firing. Of course both parties knew them and would not 
willingly have sent a bullet their way, but in a time of 
excitement, and among so many " bad shots," we look 
upon it as a great mercy that no harm came to them. 
We shall not soon forget that day, nor the protection 
afforded us all by our dear Heavenly Father. 

The poor wounded fellows soon found their way to our 
house, and Mr Hepburn and Papa have a busy time attending 
to them. There are nine now. One died ; poor fellow, he 
was one of Khame's most faithful men. One belongs to 
Sekhome's party. Papa, Mr Hepburn, and some of the 
students went and buried some of the dead. 

Among Khame's men we see some nice familiar faces 
who used to be so earnest in learning to read and write. 
Khame has brought a message from the chief of the Lake 
Ngami people begging for a missionary to come and teach 
them. It is such an unhealthy place that it is not certain if 
a European could live there for any length of time. 

I am gradually getting stronger, but I cannot yet do as 
much as I used to. What with the children's illness, the 
number of refugees in and around the house, the wounded 
people and their attendants, the bolting of my cook, and 
the excitement on the top of our arriving off a journey 
and finding almost everything in confusion and dirty, the 
last twelve days seem like a month, and many a time I have 
not known where to put myself from sheer fatigue. As you 
may imagine. Papa has had his share of it all too. He 
and Mr Hepburn went up to see Sekhome and Khamane 
in their place of refuge. They were detained longer than 
they expected, and had to come down the mountain in 
the dark. It was impossible to ride, the path being so 
steep and rugged, so they had to walk and lead their 
horses. Papa fell, and hurt his back on a big stone. He 



THE SECOND PERIOD AT SHOSHONG 155 

did not feel that so very much ; but on Sunday he went 
with one of the students to hold service at a village three 
or four miles off. The people were in their retreat on 
the mountain, and though they came half way to meet 
them, he had to climb a good way up the rough mountain, 
and that made his back a good deal worse. 

Once more, then, Khame was seated in authority 
and power at Shoshong, and once more he behaved 
with extraordinary patience and generosity towards 
his father and brother. The extent and almost 
startling nature of this generosity can only appear 
when we realise, on the one hand, that no native 
chief scrupled to take the lives of all rivals, however 
close the relationship to himself, that it seemed to be 
a part of his function as a king to secure his kingship 
in this fashion ; and, on the other hand, that Sekhome 
and Khamane had repeatedly broken the most solemn 
vows of loyalty, plotted in the most deliberate fashion 
for the taking of Khame's life, and, as we have seen, 
provoked civil war on more than one occasion, in order 
to secure their ends. Surely this South African native 
who, as a young man, broke with all the heathen 
customs of his life absolutely and finally, and who 
throughout his career refused to dip his hands in 
the blood of any relative to secure himself in the 
chieftainship, who yet when occasion arose manifested 
in the most trying circumstances true physical courage 
and noble moral heroism, must stand out as one of the 
most striking trophies ever won by the Christian 
religion upon the battle-ground with heathenism. 

Throughout these years of storm and unrest in the 
political life of the Bamangwato, the two missionaries, 
John Mackenzie and J. D. Hepburn, carried on their 
work steadily and persistently. Mackenzie was 
now most absorbed in the work of teaching the 
students of the Moffat Institution, and for a consider- 
able period had to spend time and strength in putting 



156 JOHN MACKENZIE 

up houses for the students and a class-room. At the 
same time the work of preaching Sunday by Sunday 
in the church and in the king's khotla to the natives, 
as well as in the missionary's house to the white men, 
the visiting of surrounding villages for the same pur- 
pose, the incalculable miscellaneous work connected 
with interviews sought by white men and natives, 
alike on business affairs and on problems of spiritual 
experience, were continued without intermission. Mac- 
kenzie's work as tutor necessitated the spending of 
many hours in the study and in the class-room day 
by day ; and this sedentary life made it necessary for 
him, for the first time in many years, deliberately to 
seek active exercise in order to retain his health. As 
long as the climate spared several horses which he 
had brought from the south with him, horse-riding 
was his favourite recreation of an afternoon ; but the 
terrific scourge, known bluntly in South Africa as 
" horse-sickness," swept them away, even at last 
carrying off the hardiest and most beautiful horse he 
ever possessed. 

The life of the Christian church prospered during 
these years at Shoshong. Before his visit to England 
Mackenzie had found it necessary, as we have seen, to 
be very careful about the formal establishment of a 
church communion. But shortly after his return in 
'71, when the true Christian zeal and faith of so many 
had been proved, he saw no reason for deferring this 
act. It was with a peculiarly solemn joy that he 
therefore spread the table of the Lord, and for the 
first time welcomed to that feast of the soul a small 
group of the Bamangwato people. Amongst them, 
of course, were Khame and his brother Khamane. 
When the troubles came later which divided the two 
brothers from one another, Mackenzie repeatedly sum- 
moned them to his study, " questioned them, reasoned 
with them, prayed with them, and fondly hoped the 



THE SECOND PERIOD AT SHOSHONG 157 

disagreement could blow over." We have already- 
seen that this fraternal rivalry and jealousy, which in 
their years of adversity had been impossible, broke 
out into great bitterness and open strife when the 
years of prosperity had come. Then the missionaries 
had the hard task of " disciplining " both Khame and 
Khamane. In spite of this severe blow, the church 
after a while rallied again ; more members were re- 
ceived, Khame himself returned into full fellowship ; 
and gradually such momentum was gained that, in 
later years, especially under Mr Hepburn's last period 
of ardent service, the membership of the church 
increased with great rapidity. 

It would be foolish to hide and perhaps unwise to 
omit the fact that missionaries in Bechuanaland were 
sometimes in great anxiety regarding their own 
domestic affairs. Their salary was never supposed 
to be a salary, but was calculated on the basis of a 
more or less definite experience as to the bare amount 
necessary for buying food and clothing. Travelling 
expenses incurred in the direct service of the society 
were paid for as extra. But it must be remembered 
that the price of food-stuffs and charges for trans- 
portation, alike of food and all other goods, varied 
much, and these variations caused oftentimes deep 
care. At one time a missionary's small family, out 
of their small salary, paid £\^ a year for soap alone. 
Corn had to be brought by the missionary a month's 
journey, and was paid for at the rate of thirty shillings 
or more for 180 lbs. When at last it arrived at the 
mission station this corn had to be washed and 
cleaned, ground and sifted — " if we can afford to sift 
it," as one said — under the direction and constant 
superintendence of the missionary and his wife. No 
missionary in Bechuanaland had a private income, and 
there were no perquisites. The only possible way of 
easing what was sometimes acute distress was to be 



158 JOHN MACKENZIE 

found in the selling of a cow or a few trained oxen 
for a few pounds. This, however, was a plan which 
most missionaries adopted very reluctantly, for the 
Society had a strict law against trading, a law which 
had to be enforced on one occasion by the expulsion 
of a member of their staff. Nevertheless the most 
sensitive missionary saw clearly that, if he were 
reasonably careful of the cattle and sheep which he 
was compelled to own, he must have from time to 
time a few animals which he could dispose of If he 
did not deliberately set himself to increase his posses- 
sions in live stock rapidly, for the express purpose of 
selling them and making money, so becoming a 
farmer in reality, any small transactions which came 
in his way were viewed as not only legitimate but 
necessary. In the case of most missionaries, and 
certainly of Mackenzie, this procedure was always so 
reluctantly employed as to do very little towards 
easing the burden of the household. 

During these years it should also be added that 
Mackenzie had more than once to face the sorrow of 
parting from his children as he sent them home for 
their education. 

In the year 1875 Mackenzie once more received a 
very earnest call to become the minister of a church 
in Cape Colony. This call came from Trinity Church, 
Grahamstown, and presented some very attractive 
features. In the first place Grahamstown is one of 
the pleasantest of South African centres, and has the 
great advantage of possessing schools of a high order, 
which would have exactly suited the parental hearts 
of the Mackenzies. Moreover, the salary which they 
offered amounted to about three times that which he 
was receiving as a missionary. None of these things 
moved him, and yet he took a fortnight to consider 
before he declined the offer. His hesitation was 
caused by the fact that for several years there had 



THE SECOND PERIOD AT SHOSHONG 159 

been disagreeable differences of opinion between the 
Bechuanaland missionaries and their Directors in 
London. These differences of opinion had very 
seriously interfered with the development of the 
work in several most important portions of the 
field. This is not the place to discuss the merits 
of the controversy which proceeded between London 
and Bechuanaland. Suffice it to say, that on both 
sides of the ocean it caused deep distress. Nothing 
could prove the pain of Mackenzie's mind more than 
the fact that, with all his passionate devotion to the 
missionary life, and his profound love for his own 
Society, he actually considered for a fortnight the 
possibility of accepting the pastorate over a European 
congregation. In writing on this matter (October 
29, 1875), he said, "I have refused similar offers 
without one day's consideration. But I am free to 
admit to you in this quiet way, that the manner in 
which the affairs of this mission have been recently 
conducted has been a great grief to me. It is only 
deep love to the work itself — in spite of everything 
else — that has kept me where I am." 



CHAPTER VI 

'by-products' of a missionary's career 
(I87I-I876) 

The number of traders and hunters who frequented 
Shoshong increased year by year ; indeed " Khame's 
town " had come to be considered, in a small way, as 
an emporium. Several roads from the south converged 
upon it, and from that meeting - point the roads 
diverged again northwards, making it a natural ren- 
dezvous and a convenient base of supplies. Some 
large wholesale stores were established here, and a 
number of traders put up more or less permanent 
houses and settled down for years. This entailed a 
large amount of work upon the missionaries at that 
station. For example, Mackenzie acted throughout 
his residence at Shoshong as the postmaster. To him 
the' post-bag was always delivered, and through him 
travellers in the north sent their letters southwards. 
This work, while it entailed a considerable amount of 
time and trouble, was very agreeable to him in that 
it brought him into personal relations with almost 
every one of the white men. Oftentimes traders fell 
ill, either at Shoshong or in their journeyings, and a 
number of these were nursed through their sickness 
by both Mackenzie and his wife. Several men 
were even taken into their house, and were brought 
through dangerous crises only by the very closest 
attention. Some of those who were thus helped back 
to life showed their affection and gratitude afterwards 
in most touching ways. It is an amusing fact that 

some of the traders found it necessary even to transmit 
160 



MISSIONARY "BY-PRODUCTS" i6i 

money through the missionary. A trader, for instance 
who desired to send ;^20 to distant relatives had no 
means of doing so except by sending a draft for that 
amount to Mackenzie, and asking him to send another 
draft for that amount to the trader's friends. None of 
the inland business men's drafts were at that time 
negotiable at Cape Town, while those of the mission- 
aries, because their Treasurer lived there, were always 
immediately honoured. 

In addition to all this kind of work there must be 
named that which in some ways cost more than any 
other. A large proportion of the white men who 
went into the interior, especially those who tried to 
reach the Zambesi, died of fever. Some, of course, 
died from accident and other causes. When Mackenzie 
could discover the names and addresses of the relatives 
of any of these, he always immediately wrote to them 
announcing their sad bereavement. His letters were 
very considerate and very tender. As an illustration 
of the frequency of these events, the following extract 
may be given from a letter announcing the death of a 
young Scotchman in the year 1876. 

Another young lad called C , a young Englishman, 

died at the same time. Three died some time before ; and 
three gentlemen, who are now on this station on their way 
southwards, have made a narrow escape. One of the three 
is a trader ; he has not been successful, and declares he must 
return at once to try and pay his debts. If he does — con- 
trary to all advice — he will certainly pay the penalty with his 
life. 

It came to be almost an understood thing that 
where there was any property or money belonging to 
a traveller who died, Mackenzie should take charge of 
it and transmit it to his heirs. Where the deceased 
was a trader, whose affairs had been entangled with 
those of other men, this often entailed a large amount 
of intricate and puzzling work. He used, of course, the 

h 



i62 JOHN MACKENZIE 

utmost care, as he more than once explained, to save 
expense and to send home as much as possible. In 
return for all this Mackenzie received letters full of the 
warmest gratitude for his labour of love, and in several 
cases this form of service brought him the rich reward 
of lifelong and most valuable friendships. The follow- 
ing letters reveal the manner and spirit in which he 
carried his sacred and delicate task. They refer to 
the death of Mr Frank Oates, who went to travel in 
Central South Africa as a naturalist. His travels and 
scientific observations were afterwards described in a 
memoir by his brother, Mr Charles G. Oates. 

Shoshong, !.$•/ March 1875. 

Mrs Oates, 

Meanwoodside, Leeds. 

Madam, — It is not long since a letter from your son, 
Mr Frank Oates, passed through my hands, on its way to 
England. We expected soon to have the pleasure of again 
seeing him here, on his way out from the Victoria Falls. But 
his journey to the Zambesi had been delayed for one reason and 
another, until the unhealthy season of the year had arrived. 
Your son, however, reached the Falls in safety, and left the 
Zambesi in good health. But bad news concerning him has 
just reached us from the Zambesi road — news which I pray 
God to support you to hear. Mr Oates was seized with 
fever on his way out from the Zambesi, was ill twelve days, 
and then, near to the Makalaka Towns, and on the 5th of 
February, he succumbed to the fever and died. Dr Brad- 
shaw, also travelling in the interior, happened to be in the 
neighbourhood at the time and attended your son, both as 
medical adviser and companion. It will be a great satisfac- 
tion to you to know that this gentleman was with your son 
to the last and that he afterwards superintended his interment. 

It is not. Madam, for a perfect stranger like myself to in- 
termeddle with a grief so great and so sacred as yours. While 
leaving you and yours to drink the bitter cup thus suddenly 
presented to you, I would earnestly pray that in your dark- 
ness and sorrow, your mind may be visited by many cheering 
Christian thoughts — thoughts which, like balm, heal the 
wounded heart and stricken spirit. 



MISSIONARY "BY-PRODUCTS" 163 

Dr Bradshaw brought out Mr Oates's waggon to this place, 
and handed over to me his papers and personal effects. His 
agents in the interior have requested me to act as Trustee 
and Executor as regards the settlement of Mr Oates's affairs 
in this part of the country ; and in the circumstances I have 
consented to do so. I may explain to you that there are 
only two classes of Europeans resident in Bechuanaland — 
traders and missionaries. It was thought that it would be 
most satisfactory to place your son's affairs in the hands of 
one not in any way connected with business. — I remain, 
Madam, ever yours sincerely, John Mackenzie. 

KURUMAN, Nov. I, 1875. 

Charles G. Gates, Esq. 

My Dear Sir, — In my last letter to you (a letter on 
business, dated " Shoshong, 24th August 1875,") I expressed 
the hope that I should be soon able to report the final settle- 
ment of your late brother's affairs in the interior. "Soon" 
admits of degrees ; and I am afraid that what we out here 
have come to regard as " soon " in the country of the ox- 
waggon, will be held to be slow enough in England. How- 
ever, before leaving Shoshong in September, I was able to 
settle everthing connected with your late brother's accounts. 

I am here attending the meetings of our District Com- 
mittee of Missionaries, where we assemble to discuss matters 
connected with our work. A letter from your brother (Mr 
W. E. Gates, then in South Africa), was sent after me to this 
place. Your brother mentioned his intention of paying a 
visit to that spot which will be always so sacred in you 
estimation. Lonely the spot no doubt is in a certain sense ; 
but in another, your brother's grave is surrounded by all the 
activities of the great Creator and Father of all. Flowers 
will bloom around it, though not planted by mortal hand ; 
birds will sing over it and never weary in repeating the sweet 
notes which Nature has taught them. I have not been there 
myself, but I have no doubt the naturalist would not think 
your brother's grave a lonely spot, whilst to the Christian, 
such a spot is the quiet resting-place to which the body sank 
when the spirit was called away by God the Father. 

I am writing to your brother to Natal ; I shall be back at 
Shoshong before he will be there, and any assistance I can 
render him will be most cheerfully given. — I am, ever 
sincerely yours, John Mackenzie. 



i64 JOHN MACKENZIE 

Mackenzie's correspondence contains a large number 
of letters from the traders and travellers with whom he 
became intimate at Shoshong. He had the faculty of 
drawing men to himself ; they would open their hearts 
to him, and receive from him the very word of warning 
and rebuke, of encouragement and consolation which 
they needed. Their letters make references to drink, 
to their success or failure in business, to the movements 
of other traders ; or they inquire about letters, or ask 
help in a business transaction with the chief They 
breathe unanimous affection and confidence towards 
that man whom God had set down at Shoshong. 

This love of so many South African traders and 
travellers for a missionary found expression, not only 
in letters, but sometimes in beautiful deeds of con- 
siderate wisdom, and sometimes in ways that were at 
once pathetic and odd. It would be out of place, of 
course, to enter into particulars. But one case can, 
without any danger of harm, be briefly described. 

Among the hunting traders who often visited Sho- 
shong was an Irishman, known in South Africa under 
the assumed name of Fitzgerald. He was quite illiterate 
but very intelligent, tall, handsome, and powerful. He 
had formed drinking habits which he found it very 
hard to throw off. For a long time he made Shoshong 
his head-quarters and became most curiously and deeply 
attached to Mackenzie. The latter knew how to deal 
with such a man, to rebuke his weakness and rouse 
his manliness, give him condemnation and hope at the 
same time. Fitzgerald on one occasion quarrelled with 
a number of natives, who attacked him and nearly 
wrenched an arm off. This wounded arm he brought 
to the missionary to be doctored, and for a long while 
it needed close attention. Sometimes, when Mackenzie 
was absent, Mrs Mackenzie would bring the rags and 
medicines and assist him in the dressing of the wound. 
" This," we are told, " went straight to Fitzgerald's 



MISSIONARY "BY-PRODUCTS" 165 

heart, and in many ways and for years he showed that 
he had not forgotten it." The impulsive generosity of 
the man, and his determination to defend Mackenzie 
against danger is well illustrated by the following 
incident, which the latter relates. 

On one occasion I let Mr C (another trader) have a 

little poison to kill rats in his waggon. The poison was used 
carelessly, and caused the death of a native's dog. Macheng 

came to C and demanded the medicine with which he 

had " bewitched," or killed, the dog, adding that only rascals 
had such things in their possession. " Why, I have none in my 

possession," said C , not liking the chief's way of putting 

it ; " and the little I had I got from Mr " Mackenzie, 

he was going to say, but he was interrupted by Fitzgerald, 
who said, " From me, of course ; you know you got it from 
me " ; adding, in English, " You dare to say you got it from 
Mr Mackenzie ! " And then again, to the chief, " I gave 

C a little poison, Chief; it was only to kill rats." " You 

must pay a musket as a fine, Marikwe," was Macheng's 
answer. The fine was paid, and some time had passed before 
I heard anything of it. 

Of course, there was no real need of concealing from 
Macheng the fact that the missionary kept a supply 
of poison on his premises ; that was already well 
known, as it had been used on more than one 
occasion for the purpose of destroying wild beasts. 
Fitzgerald made many thousands of pounds, but 
always squandered them, and he died at last, not 
only a poor man, but in debt. His end, like that 
of so many travellers who perished in South Central 
Africa, was tragic. He was far east, on the banks of 
the Limpopo, where he had been trading, when he 
was seized with a fatal sickness. There was no white 
man with him ; indeed, his last intercourse with a 
white man had ended in a quarrel at Shoshong, when 
he received a blow which, rumour said, hastened his 
death. As soon as he felt seriously ill, he lay down 
in his waggon and said to his servant, " Only take me. 



i66 JOHN MACKENZIE 

take me quickly, to Mackenzie." Alas, "poor Fitz's" 
strength was already well-nigh gone, and while the slow 
oxen dragged him, jolting on the rough waggon road, 
towards the one man whom he loved and trusted most, 
death came upon him. 

One of the means by which Mackenzie at once 
served the white men and gained ascendancy over 
them was the Sunday afternoon meeting which he 
held in his own parlour. Even when there were only 
two or three traders in the town they were invited to 
the service. Here Mackenzie gave out psalms and 
hymns to be sung, read the scriptures, prayed, and 
gave a brief but very earnest and often solemn 
address. He knew the temptations, hardships, and 
disappointments which these men had to meet, and 
he spoke directly to their moral and spiritual needs. 
It was a bright spot in many a man's life, to which he 
looked forward and backward when away on his long 
monotonous waggon journey. Men still live who 
speak of it with emotion and gratitude. The follow- 
ing extract from Captain Parker Gilmore's " The 
Great Thirst Land," records, in a way peculiar to 
himself, the impressions which many others carried 
away from Mackenzie's Sunday afternoon services for 
the white people at Shoshong. 

Mr Mackenzie is a tall, square-built man, about 5 ft. 
II in. in height, fair in complexion, genial in countenance, 
with great strength of character stamped on his brow, and an 
unmistakable Highlander, speaking the English language 
with wonderful purity and intonation. Mr Hepburn is 
taller but slighter, a Northumberland man, I should think, 
with great energy and resolution, and gifted with more than 
ordinary eloquence. The twain are a host in themselves ; 
and while our country is represented by men of their type it 
is bound to be honoured, in whatever part of the earth their 
labours are carried on. . . . 

Sunday came round in course of time, and I could have 
known the day from all others, by the air of rest that lay over 
Shoshong. All was as peaceful as the village homes we 



MISSIONARY ''BY-PRODUCTS" 167 

knew in our youth, on such occasions. Missionary labour 
may be slow in telling in South Africa, especially among the 
tribes so far to the north, but when our religion is represented 
by such painstaking, enduring men as Mr Hepburn and Mr 
Mackenzie, it is bound to succeed in the end. 

I shall never forget my Sunday afternoon at Shoshong. 
Mr Mackenzie and Mr Hepburn had held service among the 
natives in the morning, but intended having prayers and a 
short discourse at three o'clock in their own house for those 
Europeans who chose to come. Not one of them did not 
come ; and in the little parlour, where worship was held, the 
presence of the Almighty might almost have been felt. In 
my early life I had regarded religion lightly, but when I 
looked upon half-a-dozen stalwart men accustomed to every- 
day hardship and danger of life, our worthy pastor's children 
and a few servants, giving their whole soul to what they were 
engaged in, I more forcibly felt than ever I did before that 
there was a great God above us — One who invited our 
adoration and love. The prayer was earnest, and such as 
could have been desired, the address was strictly applicable 
to the occasion. There was no flowing language. There 
were no marvellous similes, it was exactly what was wanted, 
and brought peace to the listener's heart. 

That was the most solemn Sunday I ever passed. No 
cant or hypocrisy was here ; what I heard was an exhorta- 
tion from an earnest, true, reflecting man, endeavouring to 
make his fellow creatures feel the depth and height of 
religion, and the consolation they could derive from it. 

Another phase of Mackenzie's work among the 
Europeans was described in a letter written in later 
years to set forth his experience of the work of a 
British Resident at the confluence of civilisation and 
heathenism. 

When I was residing there (at Shoshong), I used to 
discharge many of the duties of such an officer. Several 
British subjects dying in the interior, their estates were 
handed over to me, and their affairs settled in each case to 
the satisfaction of relatives residing at a distance. Sekhome, 
Macheng, and Khame, in succession sanctioned the sitting of 
a Court of Europeans to try cases which, to use their own 
expression, would baffle the chief by himself. For years I 



i68 JOHN MACKENZIE 

acted as Chairman or President of that Court, assisted by 
Mr Hepburn, my fellow missionary. It was in reality a 
court of arbitration ; the first question put to the parties 
being, '' Will you agree to the decision of this court, what- 
ever it may be, and regard it as final ? " When they answered 
in the affirmative our course was clear — to go forward and 
do our best to give a just decision. The whole thing was 
in any instance explained to the chief, as far as he could 
understand it ; and where property had to be seized and 
caused to change hands, it was of course the chiefs power 
which was called into requisition. Mr Hepburn and I 
declined to have anything to do with this court some time 
before I left Shoshong, because, in a case of insolvency, the 
traders in Shoshong resolved to seize what they could lay 
their hands on of the insolvent's goods, pay themselves so 
much in the pound, and then leave creditors at a distance 
out in the cold. Goods unpaid for, fresh from the sea-coast, 
were then unloaded from the waggons at Shoshong, and sold 
by public auction ; and the firm which had supplied these 
goods on credit got only what was over, after men on the 
spot had received payment in full of all their debts. This 
transaction was not sanctioned by the chief; it was an 
arrangement among the traders themselves. Shoshong was a 
capital place for creditors to stand at and waylay their 
debtors as they came out from the interior, from trading or 
hunting trips. If the man tried to slip past, the creditor was 
sure to hear of it, and fleet horses soon enabled him to 
overtake the ox-waggon. The style was then for the 
creditor, mounted and rifle in hand, to go forward and stop 
the front oxen pulling the waggon and literally compel a 
settlement of accounts. 

There were certain matters which a missionary had to 
pass by, which a British Resident could have treated in a 
very different manner. At that time British subjects beyond 
the border of the Colony were completely at the mercy of 
the Boers and the natives, and it was well known that no 
redress would be obtained from the Enghsh Government. It 
was my sad lot more than once to know that parties of slaves 
passed through Shoshong on their way to the Transvaal, 
having been bought in the interior, chiefly on the Lake 
River, by Boer inhabitants of the Transvaal. I took what 
steps I deemed suitable at the time to put a stop to this ; 
but my circumstances precluded my doing what a British 



MISSIONARY "BY-PRODUCTS" 169 

Resident could have done ; for the Government at the time 
was flooded with information on this subject, and yet did 
nothing ; whereas to write in the papers would have been to 
consign myself to the fate of two early missionaries, who were 
driven from the country by the Boers for exposing their evil 
ways in the newspapers. 

In closing this chapter of Mackenzie's life, we must 
give two illustrations of the fact that already he had 
studied the political problems of South Africa very 
deeply, and held in his mind that ideal of the rela- 
tions of Great Britain to her great dependency, which 
in after years completely absorbed his energies. The 
first is an extract from the address which he delivered 
in 1875 as Chairman of the Bechuanaland District 
Committee. After a historical survey of the relations of 
the Imperial Government to South Africa, Mackenzie 
proceeded as follows : — 

Is it too much to expect that England should take a 
comprehensive view of what is going on in South Africa ? 
Taking up the question as the undoubted friend of the 
weak and the helpless, there is an immediate and pressing 
work for her to do. The experience of the past may pre- 
vent the recurrence of needless bloodshed and of cruel 
outrage. Viewing this movement in the interests of her 
own children, England has a great and incumbent duty to 
perform. It is within her power to cause that the European 
population of South Africa shall be as loyal and attached as 
in Australia or Canada. On the other hand, it is quite 
possible for her to see growing up beside her Cape Colony, 
states whose bitter dislike to her Government shall equal, if 
not exceed, any such feeling entertained now or at bygone 
times, by the people of the United States. England is at 
this hour the paramount power in South Africa. To know 
the English language is held to be a necessary qualification 
by inhabitants of Continental countries who come out either 
as missionaries or as men of business. England is colonising 
Southern Africa. Why should history have to recount that 
she did it unwillingly, unwittingly, and in a left-handed 
manner? It is not in accordance with her high name and 
character that she should retreat from an obligation. Let 



I/O JOHN MACKENZIE 

England then come forward and avowedly take charge of 
and direct the northward progress of Europeans in South 
Africa. She has been hitherto very unwilling to do this. 
The sum of ;^2ooo was recently voted by the Cape Parlia- 
ment for the exploration of an auriferous country of great 
extent in the interior. The expedition was never sent. " If 
I went up to your part of the world," said the Governor of the 
Cape of that day, addressing the missionary of the District, 
" I feel sure I should never come back." His term of office 
had well nigh expired ; he did not wish to answer in Downing 
Street for the sin of adding to English territory ; he was un- 
willing to explore, for explorers might be successful ; then he 
would have no end of trouble ; and, as he said, he might not 
be able to retreat from the country. 

The missionary is usually in advance of everyone else in 
South Africa. He is soon followed, and is occasionally passed 
by the trader. In future the responsible agent of the British 
Government ought not to be long behind. At present, with- 
out doubt, there ought to be a British Resident in Matabele- 
land on the East, and Damaraland on the West. With the 
increase of the English population the native chiefs find 
themselves unable to cope with their responsibilities. Fully 
qualified to decide on all matters occurring in a native town, 
they are unable to understand or to decide upon civil cases 
which occur among the European inhabitants of their country. 
One chief requests the white men on his place to form them- 
selves into a court of arbitration, with the missionary as chair- 
man ; and (engages ?) that the decisions of such a court shall 
have his sanction. Another chief who had attempted to 
understand and to adjudicate in such matters himself, 
disgusted and thoroughly alarmed at the changed and con- 
stantly changing aspect of aifairs in his town, assembled his 
European traders, and to their astonishment informed them 
it was henceforth unlawful for them to build, or to 
occupy, houses or shops in his country. Why should they 
wish such large and substantial houses? They were to 
go back to their waggons, and trade from them, as they 
did in the olden time. Of course this was not carried out, 
but it exhibits in a striking light the helplessness of the chiefs 
to cope with the events which are gathering around them. As 
a result of a wisely-pursued policy on the part of special 
Commissioners or British Residents, the chieftainship of such 
towns would in the course of time, and without a drop of 



MISSIONARY " BY-PRODUCTS " 171 

bloodshed, pass into the hands of the EngHsh magistrate, 
in whose presence the common people would have pleasure 
from the first, and to whom the chiefs themselves would in 
the end become accustomed. The British Residents ought 
to be supported by the Government which sent them. The 
magistrates would be supported, as in Basutoland, by local 
taxation. They ought to be very carefully selected ; and, 
while men of the world, ought to be Christian gentlemen. 

Our Society has rules which rather tend to discourage her 
agents from taking an active part in political affairs. No 
doubt the rules are the expression of wide experience in the 
various countries where the missionaries labour. Still we do 
not hesitate to say that the highest type of missionary in 
Bechuanaland must assist the chief with whom he resides, in 
political matters He finds himself the confidential adviser 
and probably the secretary of the chief in the most natural 
way, and before he thinks anything about the rules which he 
may be breaking. I do not think our Society's rules are 
really aimed against such political connexion. If they are, 
we submit with all respect that it is a mistake. Who may be 
said to have been the makers of the Basuto tribe ? Un- 
doubtedly, our brethren the French missionaries. By their 
teaching of Christianity alone ? Nay, also and as a powerful 
auxiliary to their teaching, by their active assistance to 
Moshesh as his advisers and his secretaries. Those who care 
to go into such matters, know from Blue Books which have 
been published, that the letters of the French missionaries 
commanded the respect of those with whom they corre- 
sponded ; and thus, by their instrumentality, the correspon- 
dence was raised to a higher platform, and was conducted 
between equals. British Basutoland is no doubt destined to 
flourish under the mild and equal sway of Britain. But the 
Basutos themselves have grown from an insignificant tribe to 
their present proportions, under the moral protection and 
fostering care of the French Protestant Church. 

I am sorry that matters have not taken place so happily 
in our own district in this connexion. Had the Griquas and 
the Batlaping been content to have had missionaries as their 
advisers and secretaries, and had the missionaries seen it to 
be their duty thus to act, the present wretched disputes 
about land boundaries had never taken place. 

I would here direct your attention to one aspect of this 
aggression of the Europeans, which can only excite sorrow 



172 JOHN MACKENZIE 

and disappointment. We have said that no power would 
seem to be able to arrest the white men in their northward 
progress ; no power could prop up or keep together the 
declining heathen communities. It does not follow, how- 
ever, as part of a Divine plan, that wherever you find a 
Dutch pioneer there should be a waggon-load of Cape smoke. 
The English trader and hunter is not bound to descend to 
be a canteen-keeper either for natives or for his fellow- 
traders. No doubt, if it would only pay as well, we should 
find opium as well as brandy-waggons plying an equally 
nefarious traffic. And no doubt some would choose to eat 
the opium or drink the laudanum while others might prefer 
the alcohol. Is this hideous excrescence on English society 
to follow unquestioned and unchecked into every new country 
in which they spread ? Some native chiefs have the good 
sense and foresight to forbid the sale or consumption of 
strong drink within their country. Should their territory 
at some future period be handed over to the English, would 
it not be fair that such a law should be respected and 
enforced under the new regime ? 

And how far, some one will ask, would you have the 
English to go in this work ? I answer, why should a nation 
be afraid of genuine healthy growth ? With due subdivision 
for the purposes of local government, I profess to be quite 
unable to say how far such growth might or might not 
extend. English society is at present so constructed as to 
facilitate the work of making money, and the pleasure of 
spending it in luxurious living. It is not so constructed as 
to encourage large classes of her population to remain at 
home. England is at present heedless of their leaving her 
shores in thousands ; but it would be unnatural and suicidal 
policy for her to give no thought to her children in the 
distant lands of their adoption. We are not at present 
speaking of money, nations do not always or often fight 
for money, but of sentiment and feeling ; and we assert, 
without fear of contradiction, that it is worth England's while 
to retain her children's loyalty, no matter how^ distant may 
be their present home. Indeed, there is little doubt that 
England will or will not be prominent among the nations 
of the future, according to the relationship in which she 
stands to her numerous colonies and dependencies. 

In directing your attention to this subject, you will quite 
mistake my meaning if you imagine that I wish to divert 



MISSIONARY "BY-PRODUCTS" 173 

your attention in the slightest from our own great and tran- 
scendently important work as missionaries. But I feel that 
we can do our own work all the better if- we reflect that along 
with its heavenly sanctions, which alone moved us to engage 
in it, it is also part of a great movement which is going on 
in the country, going on as we believe under the guidance of 
a merciful Providence. It is ours to evangelize, to teach, to 
educate. Our work remains the same whoever become 
masters in the country. We are not in any sense respon- 
sible for the advance of the white men behind us. But we 
find ourselves present where the meeting of the races is 
taking place, and it is in our power to assist the weak, to 
guide the ignorant, to rouse the slumbering and slothful on 
the one hand, and on the other, and as far as we can, to 
restrain from evil and from wrong the enterprising and some- 
times reckless European. It were pleasant to find a native 
chief so far advanced in intelligence as to desire to join and 
form part of this great South African Commonwealth ; this 
pleasure would be greatly increased were the chief or his 
brother, or some member of his tribe, qualified to act as 
magistrate, so as to give satisfaction to all classes who 
might come before him. The higher education which as a 
Society we hope to introduce may do something in this 
direction. 

The following letter speaks for itself — 

SnOSKONG, 2d May 1876. 

Sir Henry Barkly, K.C.B., 
High Commissioner in Southern Africa. 

May it please your Excellency, — I beg to draw 
your attention to the condition of certain parts of the 
Interior, from my own point of view as a Christian mis- 
sionary and as a loyal subject of Her Majesty, Queen 
Victoria. 

The aggressive movements of certain inhabitants of the 
Transvaal Republic are assuming an importance which, I think, 
demands your special attention. While I write there are 
over 40 ox-waggons lying on the Limpopo River — about two 
days from this place — the owners of which were until recently 
burghers of the Transvaal and inhabitants chiefly of the district 
of Magaliesberg. They are of the religious persuasion known 
in S. Africa as Doppers. They are "trekking," and most, 



174 JOHN MACKENZIE 

if not all of them, have sold their farms in the Transvaal. 
They are under the leadership of one who signs himself 
" Veldt Cornet." They are waiting for their friends to 
come forward, to the number, it is said, of some 800, from 
other parts of the Republic and from the Free State and 
some say even from the Cape Colony — when they intend to 
move forward. It was first given out by them that they 
were bound for Damaraland. They told Khame, the chief 
here, that they had heard of a land in that direction which 
was without inhabitants, and they said they were on their 
way thither. Recently, however, I hear they declare that 
they are going to march on Mashonaland, lying to the east 
of Matabeleland. Of course there is no unoccupied country 
in Damaraland, so far as I can learn : and although a large 
tract of country has been devastated by the Matabele in 
their wars with the Mashona, the country itself is claimed by 
its conquerors, who will no doubt fight with the Dutch for 
its possession. 

Here then we have a party of armed men publicly avow- 
ing that they are about to enter some part of the interior as 
an army ; and that they will seize upon and if possible 
occupy one or other of the countries already named. 

The Chief Khame has given permission to these men to 
pass through his country to Damaraland. A few waggons 
went on last year ; but I believe they have not gone much 
beyond Lake Ngami. Khame does not refuse the road ; but 
of course he will dispute any aggressive act on his country 
itself. 

The second matter to which I would beg to direct your 
attention is the condition and habits of the Matabele tribe. 
I am sure the outrages perpetuated continually, and as a 
matter of course by that people, are not known either in 
England or in the Colony. In a little work published some 
five years ago and called, " Ten Years North of the Orange 
River," I endeavoured to direct attention to the subject. 
The Matabele may be truly described as a horde of blood- 
thirsty savages who every year make wars upon the Mashona 
and other weaker neighbours, murdering all who fall into their 
hands, except young boys and girls. Old people and those 
in their prime along with children too young to walk to the 
Matabeleland, all are put to death. While they are powerful 
enough to carry on such heathen warfare with their neigh- 
bours, the Matabele have deteriorated in prowess since they 



MISSIONARY "BY-PRODUCTS" 175 

occupied their present country. An army of 800 Dutchmen 
would no doubt overcome them. The tribe is also weakened 
by the existence of a rival to the present chief, in the person 
of a man who calls himself Kuruman, and who is now living 
in the Transvaal Republic. It is supposed that should any 
respectable force accompany Kuruman to the Matabele 
country a large party of Matabele would at once desert 
Lobengula and join Kuruman. Missionaries of the London 
Society have been labouring among the Matabele since 
1859; but, alas! without having had as yet the pleasure of 
baptizing a single convert. 

When gold was discovered at Tati some years ago, the 
chief of this place at that time addressed your predecessor, 
Sir Philip Wodehouse, offering to the British Government the 
possession of the auriferous district on terms which might after- 
wards be agreed on. I believe ;^2ooo were at that time 
voted by the Cape Parliament for the purpose of sending a 
special commission to thoroughly explore the country pro- 
ducing gold — both in the Tati and Mashona districts. Sir 
Philip, hov/ever, never availed himself of this grant. His 
reason, as given to me privately in Cape Town, was that " if 
he once went into those regions, he would never come back " 
— that is, if a Commission went north, it would only be the 
beginning of the occupancy of the country by the English. 

In connexion with the events which were transpiring at 
that time, your predecessor was kind enough to say that he 
would be glad of all information which I could communicate, 
along with such explanations and statements of opinion as I 
might be able to send. As your anxiety to do your duty as 
Her Majesty's Representative in this country is well known, 
having been tested for years, I make bold to express my 
opinion upon the crisis which at present obtains in the 
interior ; and perhaps I ought to premise that I have had 
considerable opportunities of making myself acquainted with 
the peoples concerning whom I am speaking. 

I. I have no hesitation in saying that the Matabele tribe is 
not worth preserving in independence. The country which 
they now occupy, which they of course took by force, has 
been theirs for about 30 years. They form a dead wall to the 
progress of the missionary as well as the trader and hunter. 
In short in their corporate capacity, they are a nuisance in 
the country. It would not therefore be a good action 
merely to hinder the Dutchman from taking Mashonaland, 



1/6 JOHN MACKENZIE 

and perhaps dispersing the Matabele. On the lowest 
ground the Dutchman would be infinitely better than the 
Matabele, better both for the Matabele people themselves, 
and for their neighbours. 

2. But I do not write to suggest an inactive policy. From 
my point of view this is an important crisis and one which 
will have the most extensive issues. If the Dutch settle in 
Mashonaland as an independent people, there will never be 
one united South African Government. On the other hand, 
there will speedily grow up a large community or com- 
munities, richer and more powerful than the countries under 
the English Crown, agreeing in one thing if not on others — 
in dislike of their English neighbours. Allow me to say that 
it is now in your Excellency's power to checkmate all this. 
At the same time, in performing your duty as the friend of 
the oppressed and of the slave, I cannot help thinking that 
you are bound to interfere on the part of England to put 
down the outrages perpetrated from year to year by the 
Matabele. And surely your duty to England and to the 
various English colonies in South Africa calls upon you to 
prevent if possible the addition to its territory by the 
Transvaal, of a country fairer and even more fruitful than the 
South African Republic itself. 

The Dutch can be checkmated and the outrages of the 
Matabele gradually put down, by the prompt appearance, in 
the interior, of a British Commissioner or Resident, especially 
appointed and sent by you, as representing Her Majesty's 
Imperial Government in this country. Should the Dutch 
know that there is a special British Commission in Matabele- 
land they will never go there. If the English power once 
got fairly to the north of the Dutch they would be forced to 
settle down and till the soil, yielding themselves to the 
influences of the European civilization from which, in point 
of fact, they are now fleeing. Exercising a protectorate over 
the Matabele, and eventually occupying and possessing the 
country, your Excellency would find that the whole question 
of English supremacy had been settled finally ; and the 
Dutch would probably become in South Africa what they are 
in the United States. 

Should the appearance of an English Commissioner lead 
to the preservation of Matabeleland from the Dutch, it would 
only be reasonable that the Mashona Gold-fields, at present 
a territory entirely uninhabited, should be handed over by 



MISSIONARY "BY-PRODUCTS" 177 

Lobengula to his preservers. This would lead to the settle- 
ment of farmers in the very beautiful and rich country of 
Mashonaland, a great part of which is also at present un- 
inhabited, having been denuded of its population by the 
ceaseless wars of the Matabele. 

I may mention that Major Stabb, of the 32nd Light 
Infantry, last year visited Matabeleland and the Victoria 
Falls, and will be able to give information as to the social 
condition of the Matabele. 

Perhaps some of the sentences in this communication may 
appear to be too strongly expressed. My apology must be 
my sense of the magnitude and imminence of the question, 
which alone could have induced me to write at all. — I 
remain, with every expression of respect, your Excellency's 
humble servant, John Mackenzie. 

J^.S. — For obvious reasons connected with my residence 
in this country as a missionary, I beg that this letter be 
regarded as a private communication. 

At last the time came to which Mackenzie had 
looked forward with so much dread, when he must 
leave Shoshong and his much-loved mission station 
there. The progress of the Institution buildings at 
Kuruman had reached such a stage as to demand his 
presence at that place. He would for himself have 
much preferred to remain at Shoshong, and to carry 
on there the work of the Institution as it was shaping 
itself under his hands, and the work of the mission 
station in which he was so largely assisted now by 
Mr Hepburn. There had been staying with him for 
some time the well-known Austrian traveller and man 
of science, Dr Emil Holub, whose medical skill was 
freely given to those in need, during his visits to 
Shoshong. He threw himself with great energy into 
the work of packing up all the belongings of the 
Mackenzie family and loading the waggons with them. 
On June 13th, 1876, the dreary feeling of the 
travellers was expressed by Mrs Mackenzie to one 
of their sons in this way:- — 

M 



178 JOHN MACKENZIE 

This is post-day, and we are in the midst of packing. You 
would be sorry if you saw the dear old house all but empty, 
and an enormous buck-waggon filled with boxes at the door, 
and another waiting to be filled, and our own waggon waiting 
to be filled and furnished for their journey. We do not like 
this moving any more than you do. To us Kuruman seems 
a desert waste as compared with this, that to others seems so 
dreary and inhospitable ; but we are going where duty calls 
us, so we try to go through it contentedly and cheerfully. 

The sorrow among the Bamangwato was deep and 
extensive. Not only the Christians felt themselves 
bereft of their pastor and friend, but the very heathen 
knew that they were losing from the town one whom 
their chief loved and whom all trusted. They ex- 
pressed their grief in native fashion, numbers of them 
turning out to watch the waggons as they moved 
down through the kloof and the town out upon the 
flat. Many of them, including Khame himself, rode 
out for ten miles or more with the waggons, as an 
evidence of their affection and their regret. As they 
stood watching John Mackenzie go past, and saw their 
chiefs sorrow expressed in word and look, they would 
utter their soft and beautiful Sechuana farewells, 
" Tsamaea sefitle, Ra " — " Go nicely. Father " ; or 
" Tsamaea ka pula, Ra " — " Go with rain. Father." 



CHAPTER VII 

THE MOFFAT INSTITUTION (1871-1882) 

Wheresoever Protestant missions have been estab- 
lished they have found it necessary to begin the 
task of education ; and wheresoever they have been 
carefully conducted, education of a thorough kind has 
been made a prominent feature of their work. All 
the more strange is it to find that in Bechuanaland 
this part of missionary enterprise was for a long 
number of years peculiarly neglected. This is not 
the place to attempt to fix the responsibility for this 
disastrous lack. Probably no one man or set of men 
is responsible. Throughout the letters of missionaries 
to the Directors and of Directors to the missionaries 
we find frequent references to the matter of education 
and the necessity for its development. And yet years 
passed into decades, and the decades multiplied without 
any one efficient school being established throughout 
the whole of Bechuanaland. In each mission station 
there was, of course, some school work done ; there 
were always some natives who were learning to read, 
and a few learned to read well. The chief Sechele, 
for example, was wise enough to send his son Sebele 
to Kuruman, where he received a good grounding from 
Dr Moffat and his family, 9.nd he has been always 
recognised as one of the best-educated Bechuanas. 
But in no station or village was school work carried on 
by men set apart for that work who were capable 
of doing it thoroughly. One can only try to imagine 
how great a difference it would have made to the 

entire history of those tribes if, during all the years 

179 



i8o JOHN MACKENZIE 

which passed before the general influx of Europeans 
took place, the natives had been widely and thoroughly 
aroused to the desire for education. If those native 
chiefs, and at a later date numerous native farmers 
who owned valuable lands, had been able to read and 
write well and had mastered the elements of arithmetic, 
they would have been saved from many a cheat, and 
would have retained for their own legitimate use 
extensive and richly productive estates, which, through 
their ignorance, they have lost. 

As we have said, every missionary tried to do some- 
thing in the way of education ; but in South Africa, 
where so much time was lost in the making of long 
journeys and in the putting up of houses and churches, 
it was by no means easy to concentrate upon this 
work, and still less easy to carry it far, single-handed 
and burdened as the labourers were. The Directors 
of the Society in London appear to have realised very 
inadequately how much was needed to perform this 
work, and how far behind Bechuanaland remained. 
For even in the year 1875 their brilliant and powerful 
foreign secretary, Dr Joseph Mullens, wrote to 
Mackenzie, " It was for those rudimentals that we 
want you to have a schoolmaster (not Mr X., but 
a good native). We value our English missionaries, 
and want to see them occupied in the highest duties 
available to them." One hardly knows whether to be 
amazed most at the notion that an English missionary 
would not be doing the highest duty available if he 
were engaged in Christian education, or at the 
expectation that a native could be found to do the 
work at that time in Bechuanaland. Concerning this 
very sentence Mackenzie writes to his friend, the Rev. 
James Ross, " There is not a single native taught by 
the London Missionary Society in South Africa who is 
at all qualified to do anything of the kind." 

At last however, practical steps were taken at the 



THE MOFFAT INSTITUTION i8i 

meeting of the Bechuanaland District Committee held 
at Kuruman in January 1869. The Committee had 
before them a letter from Dr Mullens, written in August 
1868, in which a number of questions were submitted 
for the consideration of the South African missionaries. 
These questions included a request for proposals of 
any new methods which might be employed to " call 
out the zeal and consecration of individuals " in the 
churches. To this the missionaries replied that effort 
should be made to direct the minds of promising 
young men " to the work of Christ," to " forward the 
education of such as become interested in the matter, 
with the view of their becoming schoolmasters and 
native teachers." This general recommendation led 
on to the specific and important demand for " the 
speedy formation of an institution for the training of 
native agents." The Committee further requested the 
Directors to sanction the establishment of such an 
institution, and to release " one of the missionaries 
now in the country from his present duties," and to 
appoint him as Tutor. It was recognised that the 
Directors would have to provide an additional sum of 
money annually for the expenses of this new work, 
and they were reminded that the Rev. Robert Moffat 
had " for some time past paid the Society the sum 
of £4.0 per annum towards the support of such an 
institution." The Directors responded favourably to 
these proposals of their Bechuanaland agents, and 
urged them to take the necessary steps for the 
establishment of the Seminary which they had 
proposed. 

It was not, however, until the meeting of the Mis- 
sionary Committee at Molepolole, in July 1871, that 
this was found possible. But there, after another very 
full discussion, it was resolved that at once "an insti- 
tution for training evangelists and native ministers" 
should be established. The report which they made 



i82 JOHN MACKENZIE 

to the Directors goes on to say, " Having submitted 
the selection of a Tutor to the ballot, it was almost 
unanimously decided to recommend the Rev. John 
Mackenzie to the Directors for that office." ..." As 
a temporary measure it was decided that the insti- 
tution should be commenced on a small scale at 
Shoshong, inasmuch as it is Mr Mackenzie's present 
residence." Regulations were further drawn up with 
regard to the admission of students and the course of 
study through which they should be carried. Only 
those were to be admitted who could read and write 
Sechuana, and who had a fair knowledge of the Scrip- 
tures. They must be suitably married, and bring their 
wives and children with them for their period of study. 
The course was at first only intended to last two years, 
but it was found necessary to lengthen this to three. 
In general the subjects taught were to include arith- 
metic, geography, and history, Scripture exegesis, and 
theology, as well as instruction and practice in the 
making of addresses. 

As soon, therefore, as Mackenzie reached Shoshong, 
he began to arrange for the erection of buildings which 
would be needed while the institution remained at 
Shoshong. He and his brethren felt considerable diffi- 
culty about his accepting the appointment, acting 
upon it, and spending money upon the buildings, 
before they received news of the approval of the 
Directors in London. Already some signs of vacil- 
lation in that quarter had caused them a little 
hesitation. Nevertheless they had behind them the 
explicit instructions of the Directors, and it seemed to 
them only wise to begin the work at the earliest pos- 
sible moment. Seven cottages were erected for the 
students as well as a class-room ; and five students 
were enrolled, these being selected with very great care. 

Much to the relief of the Tutor and his brother 
missionaries, the reply of the Directors to their pro- 



THE MOFFAT INSTITUTION 183 

posals was a very cordial approval of all that they 
had undertaken. The Directors suggested " that there 
should be attached to " the institution " the honoured 
name of the Rev. Robert Moffat." This suggestion 
was well received, of course, by the missionaries, and 
their approval was, if possible, made still more warm 
by the news which arrived later that a proposal to 
establish such an institution as a memorial of Dr 
Moffat had awakened great interest throughout England 
and Scotland. Churches and individuals began freely 
to subscribe the necessary funds, and these increased 
rapidly until, where the missionaries had hoped for 
hundreds, they now heard that the institution was 
supported by thousands of pounds. 

Mackenzie found his first class of students to be on 
the whole intelligent and earnest men ; and he re- 
ported that they were very anxious to get on. The 
fifth among them was Khamane, the second son of 
Sekhome, who did not intend to become an evangelist ; 
his career as a student was cut short by his subse- 
quent political ambitions and disloyal intrigues against 
his brother Khame. Throughout the remaining four 
years of his residence at Shoshong, Mackenzie was 
daily engrossed in this work, and deeply anxious to 
fit his men in every way for the position which they 
were afterwards to occupy. He trained them in the 
work of building houses instead of huts, and other 
practical affairs. He talked much with them con- 
cerning the political excitements and changes in the 
Bamangwato tribe, and strove, by direct precept as 
well as example, to show them how they must avoid 
in their future careers the danger of becoming parti- 
sans, and yet how they must not shrink from de- 
claring themselves the friends of righteousness on 
every occasion. 

In a letter written to the Secretary of the Society 
he says : — - 



1 84 JOHN MACKENZIE 

You will be glad to hear that I feel encouraged with 
reference to the work of the Institution. The six men 
now at Shoshong work conscientiously, and are very anxious 
to learn. I hope that moderate expectations with reference 
to their future usefulness will not be disappointed. There is 
a general feeling of curiosity in the country with reference to 
them. What have they been learning ? Why was not one, 
or at most two years, a long enough period to teach them in ? 
The constant political changes among the Bamangwato have 
supplied an occasion for the students to endeavour to exercise 
that neutrality which is required of the messenger of the Cross 
who is the friend of all parties. 

When in 1876 the first four students passed the 
final examinations of the Committee, and were 
appointed to various important fields, it was felt 
that a good beginning had been made with good 
and intelligent men. Throughout their subsequent 
years they most fully justified that hope. 

The Bechuanaland Committee of Missionaries at 
the first left the question of a permanent site for the 
institution open, although the Directors in London 
had from the beginning suggested that Kuruman 
should be selected. In May 1873, the missionaries 
decided that this was the wise course to pursue, and 
sent a recommendation to London to that effect. To 
their surprise they received a letter from London ask- 
ing them to reconsider this decision. They carried 
further their investigation into various possible sites, 
and reconsidered the matter at Kuruman in May 
1874. Once more they decided that Kuruman was 
the only site that was available and, on the whole, 
convenient. They proposed that buildings on a 
moderate scale should at once be put up so as to 
be ready for occupation in October 1875. They 
also decided that if the institution was to be made a 
permanent and an ever-growing success, a thoroughly 
good Youths' School should also be established at 
Kuruman. 



THE MOFFAT INSTITUTION 185 

On this whole matter of the site for the institution 
Mackenzie, while he supported the almost unanimous 
decisions of his brethren and defended them, never 
formed any very strong conviction of his own. He 
was not at all enthusiastic about Kuruman, as it 
seemed to him too far south, and yet he was unable 
for various reasons to fix his mind upon any other 
more suitable place. 

So sure were the missionaries that the London 
Directors would approve their action, that they ap- 
pointed a sub-committee to superintend the work of 
building. Mackenzie and Mr Ashton proceeded to 
arrange for the gathering of material and the engage- 
ment of workmen. The former went to Klerksdorp, 
where builders were engaged. To the consternation 
of all, a letter was received from the Directors which 
forbade their proceeding farther with the work. The 
letter was so emphatic that there seemed nothing to do 
but to countermand all orders and break all contracts. 
As one of the leading business men at Klerksdorp re- 
marked, when he acted as intermediary in the cancelling 
of engagements, " This affair in the eyes of an outsider 
looks bad, and will more or less damage Mr Mackenzie in 
the eyes of the workmen. ... It places Mr Mackenzie 
in a very awkward position ; he will no doubt be 
grieved, and may be a little angry, for being treated 
in this manner." The reason for this unexpected 
action seems to have been that at this time the 
Directors began to receive so large a sum of money 
for the Moffat Institution that they saw their way to 
do something grander than the humble missionaries 
on the field had intended. But it was very perplexing 
and drew from Mackenzie a letter to Dr Mullens which 
contained the following passages : — 

I regret much, as Tutor of the Institution, that the erection of 
the permanent buildings has been so long delayed. Indeed, 
I believe at the time I write, absolutely nothing is being done 



1 86 JOHN MACKENZIE 

in the matter. At their meeting in April last the Committee 
contemplated rearing the Tutor's house and the cottages for 
married students, so that we could begin work at Kuruman 
in October of the present year. The main building and 
schoolmaster's house were to follow, after the fullest consulta- 
tion with the Directors. The Committee's plan admitted of 
being carried out piecemeal, and they availed themselves of 
this. It was thought the approval of the Directors would be 
to hand before an actual commencement would take place ; 
and it was thought that there could be little difference of 
opinion about the Tutor's house and the cottages, while we 
knew, that as to the place itself, there was no other site 
available. The movement had long been delayed ; it was 
to be delayed no longer. Every member of the Committee 
was interested in the work ; and everyone undertook some 
work in connection with it. But (speaking for myself) I was 
much pained to find that all this hearty work was crushed by 
the Directors — I cannot think but ill-advisedly. 

By this time business had been done, engagements made, 
all which had now to be receded from, as far as possible. 
This was unpleasant and humiliating work for grown-up men 
to set about. But it was got through — with scant grace. 
And the members of the Committee now naturally turned 
their eyes to London. . . . 

The Directors have announced their approval of Kuruman 
as a site. A beautiful plan, based on that of the Committee, 
has been sent out for the Committee's guidance ! This is 
good news. At length the Directors and their Committee 
see eye to eye. I pray earnestly that this may continue. 
May nothing — may no one — come between the Directors 
and their agents in the field ! May there be mutual helpful- 
ness and mutual confidence ! 

While the missionaries were discussing their modest 
plans, the Directors had engaged Mr E. H. Robbins, 
a London architect, to draw up plans for the Moffat 
Institution. He carefully studied the topography of 
Kuruman with Dr Moffat, making pencil sketches in 
his presence, and then drew up plans for an institu- 
tion such as the Directors and Dr Moffat had described 
to him. These drawings he took to Dr Moffat for 
his approval, and reported that " with a few slight 



THE MOFFAT INSTITUTION 187 

alterations the plan met his view exactly." As soon 
as possible these plans were sent out to Bechuana- 
land, and the missionaries were instructed to erect 
buildings as therein described. As a matter of fact 
the designs were extravagant, and the careful Bechu- 
analand District Committee reduced some of their 
most expensive features, thereby saving hundreds, if 
not several thousands, of pounds. 

The work was begun under the superintendence 
of the Rev. William Ashton in the year 1875. In 
the following year Mackenzie decided that as the 
buildings which he and his family would occupy must 
be near completion, he ought, after attending the 
Committee meeting at Molepolole, to go on to Kuru- 
man and begin the new session where henceforth 
his work was to be carried on. When all had been 
arranged, and while he was engaged in the work of 
packing, another letter arrived which amazed him 
exceedingly. This letter suggested that he should 
remain at Shoshong for two or three years longer, 
" during these building operations at Kuruman." If 
that had been the only reason or argument given 
it might not have caused much surprise, but the 
Secretary of the Society added a sentence or two 
of which it was very hard to understand the real 
significance. '' We all identify you with Shoshong, 
with the Bamangwato, with Macheng and Sekhome, 
with Khame and Khamane, and with the great social 
advance of the tribe. I can't bring myself to fancy 
you at Kuruman, even in the important position 
assigned you there. However, we shall see what 
two or three years bring forth. And besides, you 
are a man of so much weight and spirit that you 
would find far too little to do in training two or three 
novices ; you must of necessity spend a large portion 
of time on rudimentals." These sentences certainly 
seemed to contain the suggestion that the Directors 



i88 JOHN MACKENZIE 

did not expect the institution to grow to much, and 
that they did not desire very warmly that Mr Mac- 
kenzie should leave his mission work at Shoshong 
to be the Tutor at Kuruman. Much perplexed and 
disturbed, Mackenzie nevertheless resolved to abide 
by the decision of his brethren. They agreed that 
he should, upon the explicit appointments and ap- 
provals already given them by the Directors, proceed 
to Kuruman. Here, then, he settled as Tutor of the 
Moffat Institution in September 1876. 

From this time until the end of 1878, John 
Mackenzie found himself once more involved in 
the irksome task of building. The extensive and 
expensive plans which had been sent out by the 
Directors from London would have required the 
entire time of a fully qualified and salaried manager. 
To save this expense the burden was laid upon the 
Tutor of the Institution, who therefore endeavoured 
to carry on his task of daily teaching and of superin- 
tending the large works which were proceeding. He 
had associated with him as consultants, the Rev. John 
Brown and the Rev. A. J. Wookey ; but next to 
himself, the man upon whom the heaviest burden fell, 
was the Rev. William Ashton, who was now stationed 
at Barkly. The letters which passed between Barkly 
and Kuruman are innumerable, and deal with every 
detail in the purchase and transport of material, the 
engagement of workmen, the payment of wages, etc. 
The work was carried on by these missionaries with 
the greatest energy and unfailing patience, although 
Mackenzie did confess to one of his sons that he 
found it very hard to teach and to build at the same 
time. It is a curious fact that for so long a period 
the supreme work of teaching was allowed by the 
Directors to be interfered with by the work of build- 
ing, when the latter could have been carried out by 
specialists. In a letter of that year (1878) he gives 



THE MOFFAT INSTITUTION 189 

a glimpse of his perplexities, inasmuch as he is com- 
pelled to keep ox-waggons on the road between Kuru- 
man and . Kimberley and Barkly carrying necessary 
materials. At one time six waggon-loads have accu- 
mulated at Barkly, and yet nearer at hand he says, 
" It is all I can do to keep the masons and plasterers 
supplied with straw, bricks, clay, etc." In still another 
letter to his friend the Rev. G. D. Cullen of Edin- 
burgh, he says, " I have under my oversight nine 
masons and plasterers, three carpenters, one squad of 
brick-makers, two squads of reed cutters (reeds for 
thatching), besides two classes of young men who 
have just been examined by my brother missionaries." 
His difficulties were not all merely mechanical, nor 
were his worst troubles with the native workmen. 
During the period of building, two of his contractors 
died, another decamped. " Drunkenness," he says, 
" among the European workmen has been one of the 
difficulties with which I have had to contend ; and 
I am sorry to say that natives are always found who 
are willing to bring the brandy for these men, although 
they have to go seventy miles for it." 

At last, however, the work drew to a conclusion, 
and in the month of January 1879, the tutor and 
builder of the Moffat Institution was able to send 
in a report to the Directors, which described the 
structures as practically completed. It occurred to 
him that it would be only fair to the subscribers in 
Great Britain and to the Directors that they should 
receive an independent and authoritative report of 
these buildings. Through the kind assistance of 
Major (afterwards Sir) Owen Lanyon, Administrator 
of Griqualand West, he was fortunate in securing 
the services of Sergeant-Major Ellison, who was at 
that time in public service at Kimberley, and who 
was highly qualified as builder and surveyor for this 
work. He went to Kuruman, and very carefully 



I90 JOHN MACKENZIE 

investigated the entire series of buildings. In his 
report, after describing each building in detail, 
he adds : — 

I have gone through the accounts and examined the in- 
voices and bills for material and labour, also the agreements 
for small contracts with the several men, and I consider there 
is very great credit due to Mr Mackenzie, who has the manage- 
ment of the whole works, for the zeal and ability with which 
the several works have been carried out. He has spared 
neither time nor trouble to get everything done at the most 
reasonable cost. I have been for the last two years in charge 
of the public works in Kimberley, and for fourteen years 
superintending large works and buildings under Government, 
at home, in the colonies ; and from my experience I have no 
hesitation in stating that the works at Kuruman have, with a 
few slight exceptions, been carried out in the most efficient 
manner, reflecting very great credit to those concerned. 

In his own final report, Mackenzie said, " Brethren, 
I cannot say that the work which you devolved upon 
me has been easy or pleasant ; I hope, however, that 
it is work which will remain, and that a good educa- 
tional work will be carried on within these buildings 
long after we are forgotten." 

The desire and great aim of the Bechuanaland 
missionaries from the first had been for inexpensive 
buildings and a sufficient staff, and this was very 
specially emphasised on several occasions by Mac- 
kenzie. As it was, they got expensive buildings 
and an insufficient staff. They had, however, been 
compelled by the will of the Directors to enter upon 
the extensive building enterprise which absorbed so 
much energy during these valuable years. But they 
were encouraged, even when they saw the cost of 
the buildings to be approaching ;^ 10,000, by receiv- 
ing a letter from the Directors, in which they invited 
the missionaries to consider and report on an enlarged 
scheme of educational development. With great joy 
they undertook this grateful task at the Bechuanaland 



THE MOFFAT INSTITUTION 191 

District Committee meeting of February 1879. They 

outlined a scheme for overtaking the work which the 

institution, as now reared at Kuruman, seemed to 

make both necessary and possible. In connection 

with their suggestions, and in view of the beginnings 

of retrenchment which the Directors began to propose 

very soon after that proposal of enlargement, Mackenzie 

wrote as follows : — 

Kuruman, 2nd April 1879. 

My Dear Dr Mullens, — Your communication of Feb. 
6 arrived at Barkly while I was in that neighbourhood, travel- 
ling for the benefit of my wife's health. 

We were five weeks away from Kuruman, and I am happy 
to say that Mrs Mackenzie has derived considerable benefit 
from those great doctors, fresh air and change of scene. 

The instructions of the Directors with reference to the 
expenditure on the building of the Moffat Institution shall 
be attended to. The carpenter and painter has not finished 
his work. When he does so there will be a balance to pay 
to him. Then one waggon-house has still to be roofed, and 
the second waggon-house and mealie store has not yet made 
much progress. But it is to be of sun-dried brick, with 
thorn-wood roof, and will not, therefore, cost much. It 
is of importance not only as a waggon-house and store- 
room, but one end of it is to be appropriated to the boys 
of the boarding school as a dormitory, as it is not advisable 
that they should sleep in their class-room, if that could be 
avoided. 

I wait with anxiety your report concerning irrigation and 
the raised furrow. (For which a skilled agriculturist had 
been asked by the Committee.) I have the utmost sympathy 
with the position of the officers and Directors of the Society 
at this time of distress. Still I beg to remind the large- 
minded and far-seeing friends of Christian work that our 
beloved Society is on the threshold of a great work in 
South Africa in connection with this Institution, a work 
often attempted, but not hitherto attained to in this country, 
but which the Society is carrying on with much advantage 
to the natives in the South Seas, in Madagascar, and in 
India. It is gratifying to read of instances of individual 
liberality in stimulating to evangelistic effort, and the break- 
ing up of new ground. Would to God some generous man 



192 JOHN MACKENZIE 

would thus interest himself in your educational work here, 
and enable you fairly to launch it, by sending out the 
labourers still necessary to make up the Institution, and 
necessary to carry on its operations successfully. If it 
should come to be a question between sending out the 
necessary staff of workers and sanctioning the outlay in 
raising the dam, etc., by all means let us have the staff of 
workers, and let us hope on for better times as to the 
raised furrow ; that is if one or the other must be given 
up. On no account give up the work in its broadness and 
importance. It was delayed at least one generation too long 
in Bechuanaland ; in the name of our blessed Lord and 
Master let it be delayed no longer. 

I thank you for your kind expressions concerning the 
services which, along with my brethren, I have been able to 
render to the Society in the matter of its property at 
Kuruman and elsewhere. I regret that we have not been 
able to obtain a settlement as to the Eye of the Fountain 
property. It may be of importance to remind you that when 
Col. Warren spoke favourably of your claim to '^ the Eye," 
it was with a distinct understanding that we should carry on 
here a really good and serviceable educational and industrial 
establishment for the benefit of the natives. 

If you give the Institution the staff of men asked by the 
Committee it would be possible — I had almost said easy — 
for them so to arrange as that visits to the out-stations 
should be paid by them after some kind of plan, and as a 
break to them in their work of teaching — say once every three 
or every four months. Thus it is not necessary to have a 
European Missionary at Kuruman, who shall be only pastor. 
Every European connected with the Society at Kuruman ought 
to have a place and a work on your Institution Staff, and that 
Staff with the students will attend to the pastoral and 
itinerating work of the district. I am willing to take the 
responsibility of this as Tutor and Pastor of the Kuruman 
Church ; and I do this trusting to the co-operation of my 
European co-workers liere. 

In the meantime, I have to report that there are now 
scarcely any of the usual Langberg out-stations to visit, owing 
to the " unsettled state of the country " to which you refer in 
your concluding resolutions as an element which might cause 
your arrangements to be open to revision. For instance. 



THE MOFFAT INSTITUTION 193 

many of the people of the Langberg are now Hving at 
Batlaros ; and the village of Hamohara, where a student 
from the Institution had resided some three years, is now 
removed to a spot within six miles of Kuruman, and is 
regularly supplied by the students who have, in all, four 
preaching stations which they regularly visit on Sunday. 

The surprise and dismay of those upon the spot 
may be imagined when, under a sudden change of 
atmosphere in London, letters arrived from the 
Directors v^hich dwelt upon the expense of the 
buildings, and criticised the smallness of the educa- 
tional work. One of the periodical depressions had 
come, affecting the income of the Society from the 
churches, and the Directors did not feel themselves 
in a position to pay for the staff of so lordly an 
institution as they had erected at Kuruman. It 
seemed to be held by some that an advanced theo- 
logical college could be in a trice established in a 
land where elementary education had not been 
seriously tackled, and yet it was even hinted that the 
teaching of English in the boys' school was a work 
of supererogation. It was in answer to such a letter 
that Mackenzie addressed the following words of 
remonstrance : — 

In making the remarks which follow, I am not to be 
supposed to have little or no sympathy with the Directors of 
the Society in their pecuniary difficulties. I am greatly 
distressed on account of those difficulties, and especially that 
they should occur at such a crisis as the present in the history 
of this mission. As I understand the subject, the Directors 
resolved to accomplish three objects in building the Moffat 
Institution here. It may not be out of place to consider 
how far these have been secured, or are in the way of being 
secured, and good for all practical purposes. 

I. Memorial to Dr Moffat. 

I. Bricks, as proposed by local committee, were 
exchanged for stone which was undoubtedly 
more suitable for a memorial. 

N 



194 JOHN MACKENZIE 

2. While the general idea of the Committee's plan 
was adhered to, Mr Robbins, in consultation with 
Dr Moffat, changed, improved, and beautified 
it very much. This also added to its suit- 
ability as a memorial. But here also comes in 
the second object of the Directors as announced 
in the Foreign Secretary's letters at the time 
the plan was sent out, viz, — 

II. That the building itself should be an educator in the 
country on account of the style of its architecture. 

III. The third object, and the original one, upon which the 
two former were engrafted by the Directors, was to supply 
suitable premises for conducting a Theological Seminary and 
a boarding school for boys. 

Now, brethren, the two first of these objects, which have 
entirely originated with you in England, have been secured 
to a great extent, as you can see from Mr Ellison's plan : 
although two wings remain to be built before your plan 
would be a complete thing. But, in the meantime, here the 
Memorial stands in good masonry and durable material, as a 
thoroughly qualified inspector has certified to you ; here it 
stands to perform its second or silent educational work. It 
has already been instanced publicly in Kimberley by Sir 
Bartle Frere, in laying the foundation stone of the Presby- 
terian Church there, as a stimulus to well directed Christian 
liberality. The first remark of skilled men such as Col. 
Warren of the Royal Engineers, on first seeing the Institution, 
has been one of unfeigned pleasure and surprise. They had 
heard they were beautiful buildings ; they had expected some- 
thing far short of what they saw. Such sums as ;£2 0,000 
and ;3^2 5,000 have been hazarded as "what it must have 
cost : " and that, too, by practical men. As to the first two 
objects therefore, the Directors have perfectly succeeded in 
doing what they resolved to do. 

As to the third object in view — the schools, cottages for 
ten married students, and the two teachers' dwelling houses, 
are very suitable. As summer residences they are perfect. 
In the bitterly cold winter weather the height of the walls 
(fourteen feet under beam), renders the schoolroom almost 
unbearable to the natives : in the plan the height is fifteen 
feet : the one foot of masonry taken off all round represents 
a considerable saving in money. But every foot taken off 
detracts from the gracefulness of the building as a Memorial, 



THE MOFFAT INSTITUTION 195 

rendering it of a more homely character j and it must always 
be remembered that we were forbidden in the letter accom- 
panying the plan to make important alterations in the plan 
without the express sanction of the Directors. As the build- 
ings made progress, and now more than two years ago, a 
number of queries were sent out by the Directors accompanied 
by an encouraging letter. We were asked to sketch out the 
work which as a local committee we thought might be 
advantageously carried on here ; and to give to the Directors 
an idea of the cost. Most unfortunately our local committee 
postponed its sitting for ^ more than a year ; and when at 
length it meets and sends home a sketch of the work which 
might advantageously be carried on at Kuruman, I can only 
say that it is not received in the spirit which was uppermost 
in the Directors' minds when the sketch was asked for. This 
leads me to wish that our committee meeting had been held 
sooner, in the sunnier days when the questions concerning 
our work here were put to us. The opposing ideas may be 
put thus : " Having built such an expensive Institution we 
shall spend no more money there whatever : we feel inclined 
to think the money has been wasted." The reply to 
which is : " Not a penny has been wasted, so far as reliable 
evidence goes ; only our wishes as Directors have been 
carefully and skilfully carried out. Having built such an 
expensive Institutio?i, let us not suddenly stop short there ; 
especially when a little further consideration and outlay 
would complete a worthy scheme." The first mission-house 
is empty : were a lady teacher at Kuruman now, she might 
commence her work among the girls at once. Were a 
printer sent out — a good man all round — it would be like 
pumping life-blood into shrunken veins. x\cres on acres of 
arable land are lying waste before our eyes ; it is usually 
the first thing a traveller says, Why don't you reclaim that 
morass ? The agriculturist would soon more than pay for 
himself; and would place the property of the Society here 
in such a position as that the special work carried on here 
would be little or no expense to the general fund. Therefore, 
dear brethren — 

I. Send us a lady teacher in redemption of your own pro- 
posal — I believe in 1873 — when Miss Waterston offered her 
services, and the Committee declined the offer, hoping to 
get the services of (another lady). 



196 JOHN MACKENZIE 

2. Send us a printer — because your mission at its present 
state cannot make progress without one. 

3. Send us an agriculturist — to save money. 

It was Mackenzie's profound conviction that the 
greatest work could be done now for Bechuanaland, 
so far as the Missionary Society was concerned, by 
appointing a competent and adequate staff of teachers 
and workers, who should co-operate at Kuruman in 
laying the foundations for an educational system 
over the whole country. With a thorough woman 
teacher over a girls' boarding school, and with a good 
boys' boarding school, efficient superintendence of the 
printing office and development of the farming lands 
which already belonged to the Society, as well as with 
his own continuous labour among the students in the 
Seminary, it was his conviction that a great enthusiasm 
for education would be awakened throughout Bechu- 
analand. Moreover, this craving could gradually be 
satisfied in every town and village, as the Moffat 
Institution year by year sent out intelligent and 
devoted native teachers to spread the work abroad. 
This staff of men and women would have had in 
Kuruman and the surrounding villages a splendid 
field upon which to employ their evangelistic energies 
with greater concentration and continuity than had 
been possible before. Even as it was, the Moffat 
Institution sent out men upon whom Mackenzie had 
directed his whole energy for three years each, and 
this continued until he left the place in 1882. Most 
of these men are labouring to-day all over Bechuana- 
land, from the Orange River to the Zambesi. What 
might have happened if the Directors had responded, 
or had been able to respond, to the demands of the 
Bechuanaland missionaries, if they had set themselves 
with great energy to the development of this educa- 
tional work, it is hard to say. Possibly this might 
have made all the difference in Mackenzie's own plans 



THE MOFFAT INSTITUTION 197 

and the important decisions which were so soon forced 
upon him. The subsequent history of education at 
Kuruman and in Bechuanaland would seem to indicate 
that a great, a very great, opportunity was lost at this 
time. 

With the year 1879, when the buildings of the 
institution were almost completed, Mackenzie assumed 
the full charge of the Kuruman Mission Station. This 
involved, of course, regular preaching, much organising 
and constant pastoral work. As we shall see later, 
disturbances among the natives lasted for the next 
three years, and resulted in war against British forces ; 
the whole country of South Bechuanaland was for long 
kept in a miserable turmoil and unrest. This brought 
upon the pastor of the Kuruman station an enormous 
amount of spiritual as well as political labour. It is 
with the former that we are at present concerned. 
More than two hundred pages of large size note-paper 
remain, which are, for the most part, covered with notes 
on individual cases, to prove the minuteness, the care 
and the tenderness with which Mackenzie laboured 
amongst the natives through those years. These 
pages contain the names of candidates for baptism 
inquirers and applicants for church membership, as 
well as particulars of various kinds of discipline. The 
student of religion and of society is, in the reading of 
such notes, brought in a most vivid way to realise the 
immense power which the Christian Church exerts in 
a heathen land. The jottings show that on almost 
the whole range of what we call the moral life, the 
Church was the only institution in the Kuruman dis- 
trict which could teach the principles of right living 
and use forces that would help to secure it. The 
pastor studies each case, notes down the salient points 
of each personal history ; then he reports these to the 
native deacons and discusses everything with them ; 
then he presents them to the Church as a whole, and 



198 JOHN MACKENZIE 

guides the Church to a right decision on Christian 
grounds in relation to each man and woman whose 
name is presented. These jottings comprise particu- 
lars regarding the station in life, the education or 
no-education, and the Christian experience, as well 
as the moral standing of these Bechuana people. They 
show that the tumult of the war had led many astray 
into cattle-stealing and depredations of other kinds ; 
even some church officers had for a time lost their 
balance. These records prove again that one of the 
greatest tasks of the Church in such a land is to 
strengthen the marriage bond. Constantly cases of 
desertion by husband or wife are recorded, and these 
are dealt with by the Church. 

It is when one reads the life-story of these mission- 
aries in heathen and primitive lands that one realises 
the breadth and the strength of grasp which the 
Christian religion lays upon human society. The 
missionary presents in his personality and in his 
actual work that synthesis which some economic 
students of our day discuss so much, and about 
which a few of them have so many dreams. Here 
is a man who at once is a builder of houses, showing 
people a new ideal of permanence and beauty in the 
structures which he rears ; he is at the same time the 
agriculturist, giving them new ideas and desires in the 
development of lands which have been for ages treated 
as waste lands ; he is the teacher, labouring to awaken 
the intellect of picked men and lead them at least into 
the vestibule of the intellectual life ; he is also at the 
same time, as we shall see, the ruler, who, for a long 
time, actually represents the British Government among 
them, and to whom natives of all classes come from 
many towns in all directions for help, and to whom 
Government officials look for information and for 
advice ; he is also the preacher, proclaiming the 
Gospel of the Grace of God in Christ Jesus, believing 



THE MOFFAT INSTITUTION 199 

in his heart of hearts that that is the root and crown 
of all human experience, and that all his other work 
receives its true interpretation in the light of this 
fundamental relationship ; and we see finally that he 
is the spiritual shepherd of a very large flock, striving 
to know each sheep by name and disposition, giving 
every week many hours of his congested days to that 
which he believes to be his supreme task, viz., dealing 
with the characters of men and women in the light of 
the Law of God and the Cross of Christ. 

The following letter to the Directors was written 
when the first and most acute stage of the disturbances 
had passed away, and will, in Mackenzie's own words, 
illustrate what has been said : — 

KuRUMAN, isi August 1879. 

Rev. J. O. Whitehouse, Acting Foreign Sec'y, L.M.S. 
My Dear Mr Whitehouse, — The Directors will 
have understood that this station and neighbourhood has 
been a rallying point and place of refuge for the natives 
during the late disturbances. During the past year there 
has been probably a larger population on the Kuruman 
river-course than has been seen there since the time when 
the Batlaping were united and living there. It is a matter 
of thankfulness to us that we were enabled to hold on here 
during the time of the disturbances : for the large congrega- 
tion of people to which I have referred has assembled on 
account of the proximity of this station, and the confidence 
which the people of all classes have in those residing here. 

Inasmuch as the people would soon separate and return to 
their former places of abode, I judged it to be of great im- 
portance to enter into all questions affecting their Christian 
character and standing in the Church while the events were 
fresh in people's minds, and before they broke up. 

I therefore announced from the pulpit that I would devote 
a certain portion of one day in the week to meet with any 
refugee Church members who might wish to speak to me. 
Up to the present time I have seen and examined over 160 
connected with outside churches. Of these I have received 
back into the Church 117 people, several of whom have 
already removed to Griqualand and elsev/here with their 



200 JOHN MACKENZIE 

certificate of membership in their possession. Of the 
remaining number there are those who have been engaged 
in aggressive warfare : and among them I am sorry to say 
there are four deacons or teachers whose conduct has been 
highly unsatisfactory. Two have been engaged in open 
warfare of an aggressive nature, one having been persuaded 
to join an attack on Campbell, the other to join a similar 
attack on Griquatown. The latter had all but succeeded in 
re-entering the Church through deception — he having striven 
to keep it secret that he had been one of this party. Whilst 
keeping back such men — over whom the old cattle-lifting 
spirit has got the mastery — I have endeavoured to do so in 
such a way as not to lead them to be unduly discouraged. 
And I am happy to say that all who have called on me, and 
who are still under discipline for the part they have taken in 
the breach of at least the sixth and eighth Commandments, 
show some symptoms of shame, and some of them, I trust, 
of repentance for what they have done. 

Several admirable cases of steadfastness came to my 
knowledge during their examination, in which Christian 
men had had the courage to oppose the war-party. Others 
had been simply bewildered : others saw what was coming, 
but were weak and half-hearted : others again actually used 
their influence in the wrong direction. It is pleasant to 
think of the village of Hamohara, with its teacher from this 
Institution — in a small scale like Kuruman itself — as a place 
of refuge for Europeans as well as for well-disposed natives. 
When teacher and people actually left Hamohara, it was for 
fear of the war-party among their own people, and they came 
as a body and settled down in our neighbourhood here. 

I shall give a single instance of the state of things which 
obtained in this country last year. The village of Tlose, 
25 miles east, presided over by old Molete its chief and 
Holele his eldest son, was for a considerable time untainted 
by the war spirit. Great kindness was shown to forlorn 
Europeans who had escaped from the murderers at Daniel's 
Kuil. Waggons were sent for survivors, and for their 
property. Clothing and food were given to the destitute 
Europeans by Holele, who did his best for them. But 
some of the murderers themselves approached the town : 
Griquas fleeing from the European forces also crept in. 
There was no lack of beef at the encampments of these 
strangers. They rode beautiful horses ; and it was here 



THE MOFFAT INSTITUTION 201 

understood that horses and cattle were the property of the 
white people. Holele protested ; old Molete spoke sharply ; 
and soon these people would have had to seek other quarters. 
But fresh arrivals took place — among them one of our native 
teachers, an old man, along with another of Molete's friends. 
Holele now found himself alone in his town : his father and 
his own brothers went over to the war-party, and soon the 
attack on Campbell was organised, and those engaged in 
it departed from Tlose in spite of Holele's efforts to the 
contrary. This change in the disposition of his father 
Holele attributed to the evil counsels of a man called 
Likatshane and our native teacher Jonathan, all of the 
young men of whose family joined the attack on Campbell. 
On his first arrival here Holele gave me an account of his 
difficulties, and how he had left his own kith and kin and 
had proceeded to Hamohara rather than be mixed up 
with the cattle-lifting, etc. He also expressed his great 
disappointment at the kind of influence which Jonathan 
and the other men had had on his father. Time passed 
on ; the cattle-lifters fell in the several engagements, or 
gave themselves up, were fined or imprisoned, or otherwise 
punished : and intimation was given that the refugee Christians 
who wished to be recognised as Church members must call 
on the missionary and explain to him their history during 
the past few months. Among the rest came Jonathan, who 
was confronted with the facts which I had learned, but without 
mentioning the source of my information. At first he 
demurred to the truth of the report which I had heard ; but 
afterwards admitted his great shortcomings as a Christian 
teacher at such a juncture. He said he saw now that he 
might have done better. I was amused and gratified also, 
to see the well-disposed Holele make his appearance one 
day desiring a private interview, which I granted at once. 
" About Jonathan, Sir ; I have come to say that I hope you 
won't think too hardly of old Jonathan. My father and 
brothers were greatly to blame ; I don't know what possessed 
everybody at that time ; but I hope. Sir, you won't think too 
hardly of old Jonathan." I went over the events which had 
transpired, and asked if these things had taken place ? " Yes ; 
they were all true." " Then," I said, " kindness to Jonathan 
must teach him what harm he has done before we receive 
him again among our number." I might give you many an 
interesting story, as unfolded to me at these interviews ; but 



202 JOHN MACKENZIE 

the above must suffice to describe the kind of thing with 
which we have had to do. 

I have just returned from paying a visit to Griquatown, 
which I undertook with a view to complete the work of re- 
organization, and also to inquire on the spot into certain 
charges brought by some of the Church members against 
our teacher there, Jan Sepego. I found that the charges had 
not been proved, although the conduct of Sepego had not 
been altogether satisfactory. I was nearly a week in Griqua- 
town ; some four days at Daniel's Kuil, where we have now 
a considerable number of Church members, being one 
Sunday at each of these places. As I did most of the 
travelling on horseback, my waggon following me, I was only 
a fortnight away from home. Having heard all that they 
had to say against one another at Griquatown, and seeing 
that there was more ill-feeling than wrong-doing, I reached 
down the large Dutch Bible from the pulpit and read to 
them the text, "And forgive us our debts," etc. This had 
the desired impression : the idea was startling that if they 
were living unforgivingly they were not forgiven of God. At 
length all had spoken in a friendly way except Sepego and 
the woman who was his chief accuser — his chief helper as 
she called herself. I read the verse again. The woman 
said she would go home and think of it. Jan was silent. 
Their hearts were sore — having spoken much against one 
another. I asked how they proposed to live any length of 
time not forgiving one another. Both rose as of one accord, 
a good expression came into their faces, and they shook 
hands over the past. I told them there, assembled as a 
Church, that I had found things in such a state that I did 
not feel it to be my duty to administer to them the ordinance 
of the Lord's Supper on the occasion of that visit ; but that 
I would endeavour to return in say three months, and that 
then, if I found they were all living in love and good works 
I should have pleasure in calling them together to com- 
memorate their Saviour's death. 

Wishing you much pleasure and satisfaction in your work 
as Secretary during Dr Mullens' absence. — I remain, my dear 
Mr Whitehouse, ever yours sincerely, 

John Mackenzie. 

When in 1882 Mackenzie left Kuruman for his 
second visit to the homeland he little thought that he 



THE MOFFAT INSTITUTION 203 

was starting on a furlough which would separate him 
entirely and finally from his beloved work at Kuru- 
man. He had already proved, as we shall describe 
later, when temptation to forsake the Society and the 
Institution came before him, how profound was his love 
for that work. He especially valued the task assigned 
to him to instruct and mould the men who were to 
become the native ministers and teachers of their own 
land. These men were selected from a large number 
of applicants with very great care by the Seminary 
Committee. They were picked men upon whom 
great confidence could be placed, who had shown 
themselves both intelligent and earnest in their 
Christian faith. The care with which they were 
selected and the determination not to run up expenses 
had kept the numbers down, so that up to the year 
1875 only six regular students had been admitted. 
In 1875 and 1876 owing to the removal to Kuruman, 
and the task of putting up the new cottages, no 
students were admitted. But from that date the 
numbers increased, so that in 1882, when he left his 
work, Mackenzie had two classes which comprised in 
all eight students. There was at that time every 
prospect that the number would increase, for the 
recent disturbances and the advent of large numbers 
of white men had quickened the desire for learning, 
and had made large numbers of Christians more 
zealous than before. The future of the Institution 
was bright indeed. But during the years 1 879-1 881 
he was drawn into another kind of work, which was 
forced upon him by the political and social history of 
South Bechuanaland. And that work, now appear- 
ing to him as inevitable (but inevitable for the next 
ten years), became the supreme and absorbing burden 
of his heart. 



CHAPTER VIII 

KURUMAN AN UNPAID ADMINISTRATOR 

(1877-1879) 

Great Britain for more than twenty years faithfully 
observed her compact with the Transvaal Government 
that she would not make treaties with any native 
tribes north of the Vaal River. But two events 
occurred which brought her, even against her will, into 
relations with these tribes. In the first place, the 
famous Keate Award, which was the result of a dis- 
pute between the Transvaal and certain chiefs, fixed 
or seemed to fix, a definite south-western boundary 
for the South African Republic ; and, in the second 
place, the annexation of Griqualand West, the territory 
which included the Diamond Fields, extended British 
territory north of the Orange River into Bechuanaland 
itself In addition, we must reckon the rapid accu- 
mulation of European inhabitants in the Diamond 
Fields district, with the increased stimulus which they 
gave to farming operations as well as general com- 
merce. More Europeans than ever spread themselves 
over the country, and the work of sweeping the natives 
out of the ownership of their lands proceeded apace. 
Many were the stories of downright robbery which 
were told from village to village, and which awoke 
burning indignation in the hearts of native chiefs, who 
saw their own prerogatives invaded as well as their 
people wickedly impoverished. To make these ex- 
periences somewhat vivid it may be well to cite two 
instances, besides that which Mackenzie relates in 
" Austral-Africa." ^ The first of these was minutely 

ip. 117. 

ao4 



AN UNPAID ADMINISTRATOR 205 

investigated by Mackenzie at Kuruman in 1878. A 
native, named Sebelego, owned a farm called Skuy 
Fontein and held a title to it dated 1866, which in 
the year 1877 he handed over to Mr Roper, the 
British Civil Commissioner at Griquatown. Now, in 
the year 1867 one Solomon Kok had coveted this 
land and tried to establish a title by the well-known 
land-grabber's method ; he simply proceeded to plough 
part of it. This claim was disallowed by the Griqua 
chief of that date. But as soon as the English 
Government arrived the same man claimed this farm 
under another name. The rival claims were of course 
investigated by the British magistrate. To the con- 
sternation of the poor native, in 1877, and after he 
had given up his title, Solomon Kok brought him 
before the magistrate's court at Griquatown on the 
charge of burning his, Solomon's, hut and kraals, and 
filling up certain wells. The only evidence produced 
in support of the former charge was rendered by 
immediate relatives of Solomon's, while Sebelego 
pleaded not guilty. As to the second charge, he con- 
fessed that he had filled up the wells, but explained 
that they were on his own land, and had been origi- 
nally opened by himself! For this he was fined the 
large sum of £64 ; part of this he had to borrow ; 
and, as usual, when he came to pay what he had 
borrowed he found that a further charge was made 
against him for expenses. The poor frightened man 
was driven from pillar to post by schemes like this 
and actually made a fugitive from his own property, 
contrary to the law and against his will ! 

Another example must be given as Mackenzie 
described it to Col. Lanyon : — 

Jantye (a native chief) has a ground for complaint which 
he never fails to mention when I see him. The friendliness 
of " Government " is very good, he admits ; but there is a 
Mordecai sitting in the King's gate whose presence extracts 



2o6 JOHN MACKENZIE 

all the pleasure and satisfaction which the kindness of your 

Government would otherwise convey. Mordecai is Mr G 

(a Dutchman), who, as you are aware, lost his case as a 
claimant for Likatlong (Jantye's town) in the Land Court ; 
and again in the Court of Appeal. But all this Jantye says 
is in the " Kantoor," or Court-house ; outside the Court- 
house and at Likatlong itself G still possesses Likatlong, 

and says he means to stick to it. 

It is almost beyond my powers of belief; but it seems 
when Luka, Jantye's son, came from the Interior he found 

this G occupying his (Luka's) house, and told him to 

leave it, as he had now returned and wanted his house. On 
G — — , or his servant, refusing, Luka proceeded to put the 
things outside and to take possession of his house, when he 
was informed that the police were coming to apprehend him 
for breaking the peace and assaulting a white man ! Luka 
fled, and, I understand, has scarcely been over the line 
since. 

G has been repeatedly ordered or requested by 

Jantye to leave ; but that person seems to have great con- 
fidence in his power of staring Jantye out of countenance, 
and declines to go. Impudence and brow-beating of this 
kind ought to get their appropriate reward ; and I am sur- 
prised that this fellow is still allowed to remain at Likat- 
long against the wishes of Jantye, to the embittering of 
native feeling against the Government, and to the discredit 
of the English administration. The man has lost his case 
in an English court after a fair trial. What would he have 
more? 

These incidents, when taken as examples of a pro- 
cedure which was only too common, and which almost 
invariably ended in the defeat of the native even 
when he was a man of importance and education, 
will account for the feelings of unusual distrust and 
unrest which began in 1877 to make themselves felt 
throughout South Bechuanaland. 

Griqualand West, including Kimberley, was under 
the administration of Colonel (afterwards Sir) Owen 
Lanyon, who made it his aim to meet these growing 
evils as fairly and firmly as possible. He was in con- 
stant correspondence with the High Commissioner, Sir 



AN UNPAID ADMINISTRATOR 207 

Bartle Frere, who also entered into the entire problem 
of British relations towards border tribes with char- 
acteristic insight and enthusiasm. He had reports 
made to him from various directions in South Africa 
upon this subject, and made up his mind on the main 
issues involved with great clearness and assurance. 
His convictions led to action which involved him in 
the Zulu war and in other proceedings which awoke 
criticism at home. Sir Bartle Frere was one of those 
unfortunate Governors of South Africa who saw so 
deep into British responsibility, and so far ahead into 
coming history, that they outlined a policy at once 
bold and intelligent. Because it was bold it began 
with trouble ; because it was intelligent it would have 
ended in peace, permanent and widespread. He it 
was who in 1878 began to report to the home 
Government on the condition of affairs in Bechuana- 
land. In one passage he evidently agrees with those 
who held " that it will be found necessary, sooner or 
later, to extend the British dominions or protectorate, 
in some form or other, over all the tribes between the 
Orange River and Lake Ngami, and between the sea 
and the present Transvaal frontier, and the longer it 
is deferred the more troublesome will the operation 
become." He adds the following vigorous and most 
true observations : " By refusing to accept the position 
of a protecting power, habitually acting as arbiter in 
tribal disputes, we escape nothing save the name and 
responsibility. Its reality is already incurred, and 
when at length we unwillingly undertake the burden 
of dominions, we shall find it greatly aggravated by 
delay and neglect." ^ 

In another despatch he shows his grasp of the facts 
by pointing out that the establishment of two British 
officers, say in Kuruman and Shoshong, " would enor- 
mously strengthen the Transvaal and Griqualand West 

1 C. 2220, p. 35. 



2o8 JOHN MACKENZIE 

Governments." This was after the annexation of the 
Transvaal. 

Mackenzie became deeply interested in all these 
occurrences, and was drawn into an ever-enlarging 
correspondence with the British authorities upon the 
subject. He, with the other missionaries, had long 
given close attention to the question of land-owner- 
ship among natives, and had induced many natives 
to become farmers in a real sense of the term ; they 
encouraged them to use the plough and to transport 
their crops and drive their cattle to suitable markets. 
Some natives succeeded in this, and their success was 
very likely to spread and to create a community of 
Bechuana stock-raisers and grain-producers, both pros- 
perous and law-abiding. It was such men whom the 
missionaries saw, to their chagrin and bitter disap- 
pointment, ousted from their possessions and driven 
into poverty and degradation. As a matter of fact, 
these natives were sometimes so enterprising that 
their influence was beginning to be felt upon the 
Kimberley markets ; undoubtedly their very pros- 
perity awoke the special resentment of their heredi- 
tary foes, the Boers. 

Colonel Lanyon had already begun to experience 
serious trouble. Some of the Griquas, as well as 
the Kaffirs who lived within his province, still resented 
the displacement of the Griqua Government by the 
British ; and their resentment was fanned by such 
instances of wrong-doing as we have related, as well 
as by the insolence of English officials and even of 
policemen, who despised and humiliated them at every 
turn. The bitter feeling became so widespread and 
so strong that at last it broke out in open rebellion. 
For the double purpose of helping to quell the re- 
bellion, and to deal with the whole subject of land 
claims. Colonel (afterwards Sir) Charles Warren, R.E., 
was brought to Griqualand West. 



AN UNPAID ADMINISTRATOR 209 

Meantime disaffection was rapidly becoming warfare 
beyond the British border in Bechuanaland itself. 
Here matters were complicated by the fact that a 
certain chief named Mankoroane had for some years 
been officially recognised as " paramount chief," by 
which Bechuanas understand one thing, while the 
Boer and British Governments at that time under- 
stood quite another. Among Bechuana tribes, what 
we call paramountcy simply means the dignity of the 
chief whose standing by birth is the highest and whose 
tribe is the strongest. If several tribes unite against 
a common enemy he will be recognised as leader of 
them all ; if a number of chiefs and head-men meet in 
council he will naturally be their president. But 
this paramountcy does not interfere with the complete 
independence of the separate tribes, nor with the 
authority of their chiefs within their own territories. 
Paramountcy was vaguely supposed by Boers and 
British at one time to imply much more than this, 
so that treaties or agreements or purchases of land 
arranged with the paramount chief were assumed — 
absurdly, from the native point of view — to bind the 
action of the separate tribes, or affect their ownership 
of the soil. Now this Mankoroane, who really 
belonged to a younger branch of the royal family 
of the Batlaping tribes, was not at all loath to act 
in line with the assumptions of these foreigners, 
since they conferred on him much dignity, and 
seemed to multiply his power. As soon as the 
Transvaal was annexed by Great Britain in the 
spring of 1877, Mankoroane, advised evidently by 
certain Europeans who hoped to make much out of 
their intrigue with him, issued a bombastic pro- 
clamation. In this he calls himself " paramount 
chief of the Batlaping nation and all other tribes 
and peoples living within the limit of my country 
as defined," etc. He proceeds to declare that the 

o 



210 JOHN MACKENZIE 

time had now come for laying aside the passive 
attitude which he had maintained, " owing to my 
august ally Queen Victoria's Government's advice ! " 
The whole tone of the proclamation indicates the 
determination in his mind to assert what he calls 
his "rightful authority," even in places which, accord- 
ing to native law, were beyond his jurisdiction. 
Several of the native tribes of course defied him. 
When therefore Colonel Lanyon asked Mankoroane 
for permission to enter his territory at the head of 
an armed force, in order to punish a certain chief 
(Botlasitse) who had defied British authority within 
British territory, and who at the same time resented 
the so-styled paramount chief's assumption of authority 
over him, Mankoroane gladly consented. This gave 
him one more proof that his authority and power 
were recognised. Colonel Lanyon undoubtedly had 
a right to make this expedition, since Botlasitse had 
carried off cattle from within British territory, and 
in such a manner as, from the native point of view, 
to make his act a declaration of war. 

Into these local disturbances there was introduced 
a very serious complication from the far east. The 
apparent success of Sekukuni against the Boers had 
become exaggerated as accounts of it spread across 
the country. Agitators of a reckless kind did not 
shrink from going about assuring the natives in the 
Cape Colony, in Griqualand West, and in Bechuana- 
land that it would not be impossible to drive the 
white men out of their land, and that if they would 
only rise at once, and all together, the great 
deliverance could be accomplished. From village 
to village these suggestions were whispered, and the 
air became thick with schemings and threatenings 
and personal ambitions. The chiefs of the various 
Bechuana tribes of course differed in character 
amongst themselves. Some, like Jantje of the 



AN UNPAID ADMINISTRATOR 211 

Kuruman district, had long lived in more or less 
close association with missionaries and other white 
men, and were not easily deceived ; but others like 
Luka, Jantje's own son, were of a wilder and more 
adventurous spirit ; and yet others, like Morwe, were 
wavering time-servers, ready to side with the victor. 
A few successful cattle raids inflamed the greed, 
and the success of one or two early skirmishes with 
white men inflamed the pride of the disaffected chiefs. 
Early in the year 1878, roused by the very evident 
signs of a restless spirit and dark purposes among the 
natives, Mackenzie wrote to Colonel Lanyon suggest- 
ing that he should secure the appointment of a 
Commissioner or Commissioners to reside with the 
native chiefs who were near the border of Lanyon's 
province. 

At the present juncture it is of great importance that you 
should have such an agent. Perhaps Taungs would be the 
best place for him to reside at, but he ought occasionally 
to visit the various chiefs on the line, and be able to 
keep you informed of the state of things ; and if he were 
the right stamp of man he would no doubt succeed in 
keeping the chiefs out of scrapes. I am afraid that some 
officials have expected raw natives at once to act like 
Englishmen ; and if they don't, punish them for it. This 
is a snobbish way of acting, and is not in accordance 
with the true English mode of treating natives. The one 
policy reminds one of the rude blow of a big, iflat-headed 
hammer ; the other is the quiet action of the thick, wedge- 
end of a crow-bar. The one shatters everything to pieces ; 
the other moves and changes without destroying. 

Unfortunately, no such Commissioners were ap- 
pointed, although one white man, Mr Samuel 
Edwards, of distinguished South African experience, 
was employed to gather information by Colonel 
Lanyon. 

While he was in Kimberley early in 1878, Mac- 
kenzie saw a troop of volunteer soldiers leave to serve 



212 JOHN MACKENZIE 

under Colonel Lanyon against certain marauders — 
Kaal Kaffirs and Griquas — in the Province of Griqua- 
land West. This troop was surprised by the enemy 
and defeated with considerable loss. That was enough 
to set the veldt on fire. Rumours of what was in the 
native mind had of course reached the ears of various 
missionaries ; but none of them believed that after all 
these years of peaceful life and careful instruction the 
natives of South Bechuanaland would attempt to meet 
the might of the Briton. They even discounted the 
effect of that little victory of the Griquas. Mackenzie's 
confidence was shaken when one or two leading men 
came to him at Kuruman, and in a confidential, dark- 
faced whisper, said, " Monare, we do not want you to 
be afraid. No harm will come to you or to your family." 
This assurance of his own safety seemed to convince 
him that the danger was greater than he had suspected. 
Then, like a thunder-clap, fell the news upon Kuruman 
that about sixty miles south-west, at a place called 
Daniel's Kuil, a well-known and highly respected man 
named Burness and his family had been murdered and 
his farm looted. A white woman, whose husband was 
away from home on a journey, had fled with her six 
little children into the bush, and nothing was known 
of their fate. The marauders were, of course, said to 
be an army, and this murder was described as the signal 
of a general war. Kuruman was to be the first point 
of attack, and all the white men there and everywhere 
else in South Bechuanaland were to be destroyed. The 
neighbouring mission station at Motito had to be 
abandoned by the resident missionary. Rev. A. J. 
Wookey, who left with his family for Kuruman. When 
on May 29th, 1878, they reached the latter place, 
they found the European population in a state of great 
alarm. The deserted mission station at Motito was 
destroyed, and Kuruman was cut off from communica- 
tion with the outer world. 



AN UNPAID ADMINISTRATOR 213 

The European traders were naturally much per- 
turbed, for it seemed as if they would soon be over- 
whelmed and destroyed. They urged Mackenzie to 
send a formal request to the British Government for 
help, but this he declined to do. He held the doctrine 
that the missionary who goes into a heathen land goes 
at the risk of his life, and has no right to call upon 
the home government for help when his life seems in 
danger. And this is surely the doctrine most generally 
held by British missionaries and statesmen. Whatever 
other governments may have done, it has not been the 
practice of the British Government to treat the murder 
of missionaries by heathen peoples as calling for the 
interference of the sovereign ; and yet, wherever it is 
possible, that Government would of course be glad to 
deliver any of its subjects from such a danger as that 
which threatened the white people of Kuruman. 
Although Mackenzie declined to send the petition 
for help, he did not prevent others from acting on 
their own convictions in the matter ; and such a 
request was sent, although without his knowledge. 

In the meantime it was decided that all the 
Europeans should take refuge within the institution 
buildings. It is a strange fact that when the natives 
several years before saw these, as it appeared to them, 
large and strong buildings being put up, they asked 
one another what they could mean ; and the answer 
seemed obvious, that these were not houses but strong- 
holds, and that the white people were now taking 
possession of their land for ever. This idea had, of 
course, been carefully destroyed by the explanations 
which Mackenzie gave to them concerning the real 
purpose of the buildings, and their minds had become 
accustomed to his explanation ; but many of them, 
especially the dark-minded and heathen amongst 
them, recurred to their former belief when they saw 
that as soon as the buildings approached completion 



214 JOHN MACKENZIE 

they became useful for the very purpose which they 
had at first ascribed to them. There were no fewer 
than twenty-six European men now living in the 
institution buildings, besides women and children ; 
every room in the Mackenzies' house was occupied. 

When Morwe, the local chief, arrived with a band 
of soldiers and pitched his camp within sight of the 
institution, upon the old mission station of the Mofifats, 
it looked as if there was no escape from an actual battle. 
Mackenzie, nevertheless, did not fear an attack at any 
time. The buildings were too solid and strong to be 
carried by storm by any number of natives so long as they 
did not possess big guns. And moreover he felt cer- 
tain from his intimate knowledge of these people, that 
while they might have perpetrated a surprise massacre, 
the publicity which their plottings had attained was 
itself a most powerful deterrent. The real feeling of 
the best of their own people was against their plot, 
and against the infliction of any injury upon the mis- 
sionaries. The chief danger was that some desperadoes 
might set fire to the thatched roofs in the dark of 
night. To prevent this all the men, including the 
native students, who all remained thoroughly loyal, 
were divided into groups and watched throughout the 
entire night at every point of danger. 

An act of courage was performed by Mackenzie 
which astonished the natives. When one night some 
horsemen arrived from Kimberley, he saw at once that 
Morwe, whose scouts no doubt knew their number and 
the hour of their arrival, would conclude that reinforce- 
ments had been sent for ; Mackenzie resolved to walk 
over to Morwe's camp and state the facts. The 
traders and others were much alarmed and tried to 
dissuade him. But he went right into the enemy's 
camp, and announced that these men had come to see 
them and make sure of their safety. He long after- 
wards remembered vividly that on this adventure he 



AN UNPAID ADMINISTRATOR 215 

saw what he had recognised on one or two occasions 
at Shoshong, the passionate lust for blood looking at 
him greedily from the eyes of native men. 

In the end of June, Mackenzie wrote a letter to 
his sister-in-law, Miss Douglas, rapidly reviewing the 
situation in which he and his family found them- 
selves : — 

We are in a very critical state here. I don't mean as to our- 
selves — although there are those who think that too. But the 
people have gone absolutely mad on the subject of war and 
of cattle-lifting. They are getting payment in kind. A large 
English force is in Griqualand, and has completely scattered 
the rebels there: and we hear that 200 men (Volunteers) 
are on their way from the Fields to this place. Their object 
is to secure the murderers of the Burnesses, and to get back 
cattle stolen, or an equivalent for them. We are afraid they 
may come to blows. The natives blustered greatly — while 
the English were far away. But they are now changing 
their tone, and no doubt by and by will be very humble. 
I have done my very best for old Jantye the chief, or one of 
the chiefs of the district. But it has been of no use, except 
that the old man has turned round upon me, and denied 
having written a certain letter to the English Government, in 
which he promised to do his best to recover stolen property, 
and to secure the perpetrators of the dreadful murder at 
Daniel's Kuil, some fifty miles from here. They are all 
here in his country, and no one lays hold of them. 

You know, dear Bessie, I would be the last to spread any- 
thing like an alarming report; but there is no doubt that 
there was a general movement in the native mind in Griqua- 
land West and in the surrounding districts to rise upon the 
white men and to massacre them. You need have no fear ; 
the thing has come to light. But the traders are especially 
uneasy about it : and there are some twenty-six Europeans 
(men) now in the Institution : many of them having wives 
and children also. 

I hope Col. Lanyon will turn up while the Volunteers are 
here, so that some permanent settlement may be come to. 
I could not have supposed that the Bechuanas could have 
been such fools as they have proved themselves in this matter. 
It is also particularly distressing to hear that more than 



2i6 JOHN MACKENZIE 

one of the murderers of the Burnesses is a baptised person 
and member of this Kuruman church. May good govern- 
ment be established in our midst and that speedily ! 

The students turn out very well in this trying time. The 
two eldest, who belong to this district, have particularly 
exerted themselves to assist Jantye to do what is right. But 
the old man has bad sons ; so he promised to do the right 
thing, but alas ! has not performed it. 

We still mount guard every night ; the students have one 
of the stations to guard. We are afraid of fire, as the 
Institution has a thatched roof — that is, every part except 
the student's cottages, which are roofed with corrugated iron. 

Had we been alone here, we should have gone on in our 
usual way, but as there were a good many other missionaries 
and others who considered themselves in danger (and perhaps 
rightly), we could do nothing else than receive them here. 
Ours is a place of refuge. We are non-combatants, of course. 
But we have quietly made every preparation against attack, 
but do not expect any will be made. 

In another letter w^ritten a little later to his friend, 
the Rev. James Ross, he again comments upon the 
situation in the following manner : — 

I have been waiting with much anxiety just now to know 
what settlement Sir Bartle Frere and the English Government 
will make in Bechuanaland after the fighting is over. 

Here, as in other parts of the world, a few restless spirits in 
" high life " can throw a whole country into war and confusion. 
The body of the Bechuana people did not, and do not, want 
to fight with the English. But others did ; and by and by 
the foolish hope was more and more begotten generally in 
the peoples' minds, that the English were being conquered 
in some places, and could be conquered everywhere. They 
would not listen to me here. Old Jantye did, but his son 
Luka, the real ruler, laughed at my advice. Our country is 
now in the hands of the English. We have an English 
garrison here. The reign of feudalism is over. The question 
is — What position are the body of the people, small farmers, 
stock-grazers, etc., to occupy ? I have written a memorandum 
propounding a bold and new plan (in this country) viz., to 
give the farming population back their farms as tenants 
under the Queen. This is in preference to the *' location " 



AN UNPAID ADMINISTRATOR 217 

plan which kee^ the natives together in a pseudo-feudal 
manner, professelaly under the Queen, but really, as the last 
war has shown, under their own chiefs. 

I always was somewhat sanguine. It would be a great 
pleasure to me, as I have no doubt it would be to you as an 
onlooker, to have something to do with the great work of 
showing practically how the coalition between the two races 
of Europeans and Africans can take place, with profit to 
both sides, and with the minimum of friction and heart- 
burning. 

To treat an African other than as a nigger, destined to be 
shot down by the white man, is odious to some. A wounded 
commandant lying in my study, as a hospital, is of this 
opinion. *' Make a boundary line, and drive them over it, 
and keep them over it, and don't care or heed what they do 
over that line, and among one another ! " That is the old 
Colonial policy, which caused, with other factors, some 
half-a-dozen Kaffir wars. A step higher and better is the 
location one, the present policy of the Cape, but one con- 
cerning which there is considerable uneasiness and distrust 
among those who administer the Government. To conquer 
a country in Europe does not mean to drive out the body 
of the people out of the land ; would not mean even to 
degrade the farmer class, to make practically serfs of them. 
But this is what it would mean here, if they don't change 
their policy. 

Mind, I hope they will. We could not have a better man 
than Sir Bartle Frere, and Col. Lanyon is also a fair-minded 
man. We shall see. 

There is still fighting to be done. And there will come 
what I consider the real tug of war, to devise a wise policy, 
get the right men to carry it out, and get the people to 
trust that you are sincere in what you are doing. Post 
time. — Our love to you all, John Mackenzie. 

Write soon. Don't be beat by a missionary. 

When the Europeans at Kuruman took refuge in 
the institution-buildings in their alarna, they hardly 
realised the extent to which other people far from 
them became alarmed on their behalf At Kimberley 
the excitement grew intense as rumours came flying 
across the country announcing that the missionary 



2i8 JOHN MACKENZIE 

and traders' families at Kuruman were eut off; and 
later, that they had been attacked ; and later still, 
that they were all murdered " except Mackenzie, and 
Mackenzie had fled." The coolest and wisest men 
of course distrusted these rumours, but the situation 
was serious enough to call, as it seemed, for energetic 
action. Mr Ford was accepted by Col. Lanyon as 
the organiser and leader of a band of volunteers, who 
rode quickly across the country to Kuruman. They 
had a sharp battle with the natives at Ko, before they 
reached their destination, in which some of the white 
men were killed, and Commandant Ford and his son, 
along with others, were severely wounded. The 
wounded men were taken to the institution-buildings 
at Kuruman, and henceforth for months the home of 
the Mackenzies and other rooms of the institution 
were occupied by wounded soldiers, who were brought 
thither from one fight after another. Poor Ford and 
his son lay together in Mackenzie's study, and there 
the young man died. At a later date, one of the 
wounded bore the well-known name of Arnold, being 
a grandson of Dr Arnold of Rugby, and brother of 
Mrs Humphry Ward. He died of his wound, and 
was laid to rest in the little mission cemetery. 

The victory at Ko still further roused the hopes of 
the wilder natives, and great confusion resulted. Many 
of the rebels in Griqualand West, consisting of Kaal 
Kaffirs and Griquas, had already fled northwards and 
westwards through the Kuruman district, driving large 
numbers of cattle which they had stolen from British 
subjects ; among their number were the murderers of 
the Burnesses. They found a ready ally in Luka, the 
bad son of Jantye, and he with them brought pressure 
to bear upon many of the peace-loving Bechuanas, 
forcing them into outward alliance with themselves. 
Luka was very indignant when Mackenzie sent mes- 
sengers from Kuruman amongst his followers, with 



AN UNPAID ADMINISTRATOR 219 

the broad and open announcement that they were 
all blundering, and that it was his wish that all who 
had no personal desire to fight should at once forsake 
Luka and^ return to their homes. The result of this 
message was a large decrease in the followers of Luka. 
But the victory at Ko had produced another and 
opposite effect, for it brought Colonel Lanyon and 
Colonel Warren immediately upon the field. With- 
out hesitation they now passed across the border 
into South Bechuanaland with a sufficient force to 
carry all before them. They came avowedly upon 
a punitive expedition, and one which, according to 
native law and custom, they had every right in the 
circumstances to make. Their immediate purpose 
of course was to deal with the Griqualand rebels and 
the murderers of the Burnesses ; but as we shall see, 
when they found themselves actually in Bechuanaland, 
the extent of their operations spread from town to town 
as the Griquas fled before them ; and their own task 
was changed insensibly, and even beyond their pur- 
pose, from that of a punitive expedition, to that of 
a peace-making and re-organising administration. As 
Colonel Warren in the ensuing months pursued the 
Griquas and other rebels from place to place, he 
found that the spirit of war had laid hold of con- 
siderable numbers of the Bechuana people. Several 
sharp engagements took place. It was the object 
of Colonel Warren to be at once severe and kindly ; 
severe towards the real objects of his pursuit, and 
kindly towards all who submitted and brought their 
pleas before him. It is safe to say that few soldiers 
have ever succeeded so well as he did in carrying out 
this double policy. Mackenzie appreciated his work 
in the very warmest manner, and he was able to 
point to it ever after as having produced upon the 
native mind a profound sense of the fairness of the 
Queen's representatives, who desired only to punish 



220 JOHN MACKENZIE 

wrong-doing, and not to rob anyone of life or pro- 
perty. The work of Colonel Warren went far to 
confirm Mackenzie's faith in the effect of a direct 
Imperial control of native territories. It was found 
necessary to leave small bodies of border police at 
various points, while the chief force was placed at 
Batlaros, about ten miles from Kuruman, under 
Major Stanley Lowe. This officer remained in the 
country for about three years, and he too gained the 
warm approval and goodwill of all who watched his 
methods of dealing, alike with the natives on one 
hand, and with the invading European farm-seekers 
on the other. 

From the first entrance of the British officers and 
their men into Bechuanaland, the labours of Mackenzie 
were enormously increased. He carried on, with very 
little interruption, after November 1878, his full work 
as tutor of the institution and pastor of the Kuruman 
church and district. But in addition he was now forced 
to undertake work of a political nature. It was inevit- 
able. To him the white men and the natives alike 
looked for information and advice. He received, some- 
times daily, letters from Major Lowe and Colonel 
Warren, advising him of their movements, informing 
him concerning the natives with whom they dealt, 
asking him to take various steps which seemed neces- 
sary in order to pacify hostile leaders, and to win 
over wavering chiefs, and to investigate the evidence 
for complaints which were brought before them for 
adjustment. To him also the native chiefs came, or 
sent messengers, stating their troubles, defending them- 
selves from crimes of which they were accused, or 
seeking some way of repentance. 

This work received official recognition in the follow- 
ing manner. On August ist, 1878, he addressed a letter 
to Colonel Lanyon, as Administrator of the Province 
of Griqualand West, and the invader of Bechuanaland, 



AN UNPAID ADMINISTRATOR 221 

frankly placing the circumstances of the country before 
him. It seemed to him that since the power of the 
chiefs was broken, and British officers were now, even 
against their wills, de facto rulers of the country, it 
was their duty to plan for the future. How were the 
natives to be treated under these altered circumstances ? 
The two plans previously employed by Europeans in 
South Africa were described as follows : — The first says, 
" Having conquered the natives, deprive them of their 
country, and let them go elsewhere, or hire themselves 
out as labourers. This is the old plan, and it always led 
to war." The second plan, which had been adopted in 
recent years by the English Government, consists in 
assigning to every native tribe its own location, where, 
under the general protection of the English, they live 
practically very much as they did before. This plan, so 
largely employed in Natal and in some parts of the 
Transvaal, has its own peculiar and real dangers ; for, in 
the first place, it perpetuates the tribal or clannish manner 
of life, and, inasmuch as the population increases more 
rapidly under this system, and no effort is made to 
advance them in education and civilisation, a dark and 
dangerous heathenism is perpetuated in the very midst 
of a European country. 

Mackenzie urged that a new plan was evidently 
necessary ; one which, on the one hand, would avoid 
permanent continuance of the tribe, and bring the 
people directly under British control, and, on the other 
hand, would not degrade a people who already were 
mounting visibly and steadily towards civilisation. 
He could point to the fact that already among the 
Bechuanas there were to be found a large number of 
men who constituted a farming class. These men led 
out water from their fountains, and annually raised a 
little wheat as well as Kaffir corn and " mealies." 
This work of irrigation meant, in some cases, much 
hard work. " Surely," he urged, " these men have a 



222 JOHN MACKENZIE 

right to go on as farmers. Why should they be 
degraded as a class ? They hold their fountains 
under some kind of tenure from their chiefs ; let 
them continue to farm under such tenure as might be 
arranged." His proposal was, that to all natives who 
could show that they had actually tilled the soil, 
leases should be granted for a period of say ten years, 
during which they would pay rental, and at the end of 
which their standing could be carefully revised. An 
essential feature of the scheme was that not more than 
say six or eight huts should be built on one farm. This 
would effectually prevent an ambitious chief from 
attempting to collect a large number of poorer or 
weaker people around him as his vassals or slaves. It 
would thus break down the tribal system, without 
injustice or hardship. There was another essential 
feature of the scheme, that the leases should be un- 
saleable, which would protect the tenant-farmer class 
of natives from being imposed upon and robbed by 
clever and unscrupulous land-jobbers and land-agents. 
Practically Mackenzie said. Treat these people as 
children who need paternal care ; watch over them 
until they are further educated and able, in ten or 
twenty years, to manage their own affairs without the 
immediate tutelage of a white officer. At the same 
time he made it clear, now and later, with great 
frequency and carefulness, that he was no indis- 
criminate lover of the blacks, that he did not seek to 
pet them or treat them with undue consideration, as 
he was afterwards so often accused of doing. He 
insisted, on the contrary, that every native who proved 
himself unworthy of his lease should be ejected. " Let 
him sink to his own level among the inferior labouring 
class." What this missionary stood for and demanded 
was simply justice, bare justice to a class whom he 
and many others had laboured for many years to 
uplift, and who were being visibly and confessedly 



AN UNPAID ADMINISTRATOR 223 

raised to a higher rank in life. As he pointed out in 
a later communication, the reports upon the state of 
Bechuanaland, made by unbiassed and careful English 
officers, showed that many of the natives were now 
living, " practically much after the mode of the Dutch 
Boers." There can be no doubt that many of these 
natives were beginning to read and to write, to plough 
the land, and to prepare their cattle for the market, 
which means that they were as civilised as many of 
those ignorant Boers and other Europeans who rushed 
in upon their lands and drove them from possession 
of their farms. And they were very often better men. 
The only conceivable reason that could be given in 
justification of this process of civilising South Africa 
by robbing the natives of their farms, was that the 
one set of men were white and the others black. 
Mackenzie claimed that this reason ought henceforth 
to be condemned by the British Government, and its 
operation made impossible by a new departure in 
policy. And yet he only claimed justice, bare justice, 
for men who occupied or owned farm lands, diligently 
tilling the soil and disposing of the produce in a 
civilised manner. 

Colonel Lanyon, while he was in Kuruman, held 
many long and earnest conversations with Mackenzie 
about these matters. He, of course, urged against the 
assumption of the government of South Bechuanaland, 
that the British people disliked any more annexation, 
and that many of them were sensitive about interfering 
with the inherited rights of the native chiefs and tribes. 
To this the convincing answer was given in a twofold 
manner. Bechuanaland was not and never would be 
fully occupied by the natives themselves ; there was 
abundant room for both Europeans and natives ; but, 
on the other hand, " the word annexation is misleading. 
The real movement is that which is happening before 
our eyes, in the country, in the spread of the whites. 



224 JOHN MACKENZIE 

That is the annexation ! " What therefore he con- 
tended for was simply the formal and authoritative 
regulation of an annexation which neither native 
chiefs nor European governments could put a stop 
to, which was " happening before our eyes." No way 
could be found which would more certainly dispossess 
the natives of their land than for England to refuse to 
occupy the country. No way could be found more 
certainly to conserve the rights of the natives and to 
uplift them than by sending British officers and magis- 
trates to see that bare justice was done between the 
white man and black. 

The result of these communications and conversa- 
tions was that in September 1878, Colonel Lanyon 
asked Mackenzie to aid the Government by acting as 
its agent in Bechuanaland. The following was his 
reply : — 

With reference to your proposal or inquiry as to my 
assisting the Government in the settlement of the country, 
I have given the matter my best consideration ; and the 
following are some of my thoughts on the subject. 

If there is one name more hateful than another to a native 
of this part of the country, it is that of agent, " ah-gent " as 
they call it. For a missionary to leave his work and become 
an " agent," would be to descend to another level in native 
eyes ; he might be better or worse than other agents, he 
would not be regarded by them any longer as their fast and 
trusted friend. 

But, if I understand you aright, you do not propose that I 
should appear to the people in any other capacity than their 
missionary and trusted adviser. If this is so, I am willing to 
place whatever influence, etc., I may have, at the service of 
the Government. Indeed the work which you sketch — of 
carrying through a plan by which the Bechuanas can become 
accustomed to British rule and, at the same time, go on 
making progress in agriculture, etc. — is, perhaps, at present, 
the most urgent undertaking connected with the welfare of 
the natives. Once done well in one district, this work could 
be copied elsewhere with local modifications. Tribes in the 
interior would scrutinize it, and I hope, see its advantages. 



AN UNPAID ADMINISTRATOR 225 

Now, speaking frankly, I should be glad and thankful to be 
connected with such a work ; and feel that thus I should be 
doing a permanent service to both Europeans and Bechuanas. 
You see that I have full confidence in the sincerity and the 
good intentions of the Government, that it is their wish that 
the Bechuanas should take root in the country and occupy it. 

Were it possible that this could be changed and that 
retrogressive measures should be adopted, with the view of 
driving the natives out of the country, the Government could, 
of course, expect no assistance from me in carrying out such 
a policy. 

If then Sir Bartle Frere as representing the Imperial 
Government, joins in your view that while discharging my 
work as Tutor in the Moffat Institution, etc., I could be 
of use to the Government in the present peculiar state of 
affairs in Bechuanaland, I am willing to meet these views and 
do my best in the service of the Government. The fact 
that the best and most influential young men among the 
Bechuanas are under my care as Tutor and that native 
ministers who have been in the Institution, are anxious to 
keep up intercourse with their old teacher, are all means 
which might be used for the good of the people. 

(You will remember that Matsau, our minister at Man- 
koroane's, of his own accord rode through on horseback, to 
be with us in our difficulties when shut up here, — as soon as 
he arrived, quietly taking his turn as sentry, etc., as if he 
were still a student.) 

Stipulating that I must not be called an " agent " (ah-gent) 
— that the duties expected of me will be such as could be 
performed along with those I am now discharging, and that 
the work to be done will be such as is sketched in your 
letter ; generally to induce the Bechuanas to settle in Bechu- 
analand, under the Queen, in some such way as in the scheme 
I had the honour to forward to your Excellency some time 
ago — I am willing to accede to your proposal, if it is deemed 
advisable, and to give the Imperial Government my hearty 
and earnest service. 

I thank you for the compliment involved in the proposal ; 
and pray that if the work is given me to do you may have no 
cause to regret that you made it. 

From this time forward, for about eighteen months 
semi-officially, and down to April 1882, actually, 

p 



226 JOHN MACKENZIE 

Mackenzie carried on the work thus undertaken at the 
instance of the Administrator of Griqualand West. 
As he afterwards explained to the Directors of the 
Society, he never allowed this to interfere with his 
distinctively spiritual and educational responsibilities ; 
although he felt in his heart of hearts that it was 
work which some one must undertake, if the conditions 
were to be preserved under which the mission work in 
Bechuanaland could be most successfully carried on. 
Moreover, he found that far from interfering with his 
influence as a missionary, the kind of work which he 
did enormously increased it ; for the natives now saw 
in him a man, who not only preached the Gospel and 
not only advised faith in the English Government, but 
who himself acted effectively and authoritatively as 
their friend. Wherever he saw wrong-doing, in white 
or black, he rebuked it ; wherever a black man robbed 
a white farmer, or a white land-grabber coerced a 
black farmer, he stood unflinchingly for justice and 
righteousness. Such work could only raise the esteem 
of the natives for the missionaries and for the religion 
which they professed. It also carried Mackenzie's 
name over the Transvaal, where the true significance 
of his policy was well understood, far better indeed 
than at Government House, Cape Town, or in London ; 
and where the ultimate issues of that policy were alike 
foreseen and feared. Only let Mackenzie do what he 
was now doing for another ten years, and Bechuana 
farmers in South Bechuanaland would be as firmly 
established in their ownership, and as prosperous, as 
most Boer farmers were then in the Transvaal. 

It should be added that for all the work which he 
thus performed Mackenzie never asked, and was never 
offered, any compensation by the Government which 
he served. 



CHAPTER IX 

KURUMAN — JOHN MACKENZIE'S CHOICE (l 879- I 882) 

The hard work of 1878 extended into 1879. ^^ this 
year the number of students was considerably increased, 
and at the same time the poHtical work was multiplied. 
Mackenzie's devotion to missionary labours was not 
curtailed by the continual consultations which went 
on between him and native chiefs and farmers on the 
one hand, and British officers on the other. He con- 
tinued to discuss, of course, the political problems of 
the situation both in letters and in conversation with 
Colonel Lanyon and Colonel Warren. He also for- 
warded to Sir Bartle Frere a memorandum containing 
a certain plan for the government of Bechuanaland, 
which he had been gradually working out in his own 
mind, and which the experience of these months, as 
well as his complete knowledge of native laws and the 
native mind, proved to be thoroughly practical. This 
scheme was described by him in many various forms 
at various times ; but nowhere with more clearness 
than in a letter which he drafted for the Bechuana- 
land District Committee of missionaries, which they 
adopted and sent to Sir Bartle Frere. They did this in 
answer to a request from His Excellency for suggestions 
regarding measures which they thought calculated to pro- 
mote the advancement of the races amongst which they 
laboured. Before giving this document, it may be well 
to emphasise the point that the main source of trouble 
among South African races had ever been the question 
of land tenure. From the days when the first Dutch- 
men began to graze their herds and dig their gardens 

227 



228 JOHN MACKENZIE 

on the lands around Cape Town, which Hottentots had 
previously used as their own, down to the days when 
Boer commandoes picked quarrels with native chiefs, 
then fought them and seized their fountains, dispossess- 
ing them of their lands, and making it illegal henceforth 
that one of their colour should own land in his own 
country ; or when English land-jobbers made natives 
drunk and got them to sign away their property under 
the influence of liquor, or drew up deeds of sale in Eng- 
lish, which they professed to translate into Sechuana, 
and persuaded the native to sign, under the impression 
that they were deeds of another kind — these poor, 
ignorant, and yet often intelligent, sometimes hard- 
working and trustworthy, men, had been steadily 
deprived of all rights, and had been made practically 
serfs under the white man's rule. Their original land 
system was a simple form of feudalism. The land 
belonged to the people, the chief assigned to each his 
fountain and his garden ; but land, according to native 
law, was inalienable, and all deeds of sale to white men 
were therefore in fact illegal, and all to whom land was 
assigned must render military service to their chief. 
But this system v/as now broken down, for the chiefs 
had lost their power, and the strongest took what he 
desired, and there was no law. 

The method which Mackenzie proposed was intended 
to make the transition, from the broken-down feudal- 
ism to the European method of private ownership in 
land, entirely safe for those native peoples. But let 
this be described in the language adopted by the 
missionaries of Bechuanaland, and communicated by 
them to Sir Bartle Frere. The following is part of 
their document : — 

I. Our first suggestion has reference to the land. We 
submit that both Griquas and Bechuanas stand on an 
entirely different platform as to civilisation from that 
occupied by Kaal Kaffirs or by Zulus. It is no exaggera- 



? 



JOHN MACKENZIE'S CHOICE 229 

tion to say, and your officers who have made acquaintance 
with the country, will bear us out in the assertion, that 
the population affected by the war in and around Griqua- 
land West, have attained a respectable position as to 
civilization. 

II. In their dwellings, in their gardens and corn-fields, 
in their possessions, in their clothing and personal habits, 
you have infallible evidence that the people have long left 
the ranks of heathen. Let the spoils of Langberg, Gamoperi, 
Takong, etc., testify whether or not the English were fighting 
with people who had a right to be called civiHzed. 

III. Many of the fountains of South Bechuanaland have 
already been opened up and led out by the people. Indeed, 
Bechuana society had reached an interesting crisis before the 
war. The people, who were devoting more and more of their 
time to farming, were constantly harassed by their chiefs, who 
wished them to live together in the town in the old style. 
Missionaries advised the chiefs to yield to the inevitable and 
sanction this farming, or scattered life, among their people, 
with the understanding that they all came in from their farms 
once or twice in a year. 

IV. Having then to deal with people in this condition, we 
respectfully submit that they ought to meet with treatment 
corresponding to their degree of advancement, and not having 
reference to their colour. 

V. Those who have made themselves acquainted with the 
conditions of these people, prior to the advent of missionaries 
among them, and contrast that with their position in 1878, 
will be encouraged with reference to their capability of improve- 
ment. Indeed, such a glance at the past of the people would 
encourage a just mind to hold out to them inducements to 
follow the same peaceful and industrious manner of life which 
has been characteristic of many of the people. 

VI. Proceeding upon the supposition that the country 
comes under the English Government, we would respect- 
fully suggest — 

1. That, except in special cases, such as chiefs or 

other men who have made themselves obnoxious, 
natives who have been in occupation of an irri- 
gable garden or small farm, be placed in similar 
circumstances under the English Government. 

2. We do not recommend that saleable title-deeds to 

farms be given to Bechuanas. The land has 



230 JOHN MACKENZIE 

hitherto belonged to the tribe as such, and has 
been unsaleable. We would propose that a similar 
law should still obtain ; that is, that natives who 
have irrigable gardens or small farms should 
obtain a lease of them under the English 
Government for a certain number of years, say 
ten ; and that under this lease they pay an 
annual rental to Government as landlord. 
That it be understood that there shall be no 
eviction at the end of the lease, if the tenant 
has conducted himself well, and has cultivated 
his ground in an industrious manner ; but that if 
the opposite has been the case, if the farm has been 
neglected, or criminal charges have been preferred 
against the occupant, that the officer of Govern- 
ment appointed to such questions have the 
power to refuse a renewal of the lease, should 
he on the whole decide to do so. 

VII. The Committee anticipate that a plan of this 
description would effectually obviate the numerous and 
serious difficulties which immediately arise, when speculators 
in land are allowed free course to act upon native land- 
owners. In the latter case the native is induced to sell his 
farm — sometimes by presenting a long bill and threatening 
imprisonment ; often while under the influence of strong 
drink, and unaware what he is about. 

VIII. Some of the Bechuanas with whom members of the 
Committee are acquainted have expended considerable 
labour in leading out water furrows. In one case which 
occurred a short time before the outbreak, the native farmer 
received labourers from all quarters to work at his furrow. 
He was able to get them and to keep them, during the time 
when the Moffat Institution buildings were in progress. He 
paid with money and with stock. Such men would be seen 
to get on well under the English Government. Others of 
equal enterprise, but of less means, would no doubt avail 
themselves of government loans for such work, as soon as 
they understood thoroughly what that meant. 

IX. It is of great consequence that some such policy as 
that here indicated should be carried out in South Bechuana- 
land, for other reasons than those connected with its own 
inhabitants. The tribes in the interior are watching with 
the closest interest the steps which Government will take 



JOHN MACKENZIE'S CHOICE 231 

with reference to land. ... If the tribes in the south 
are allowed to remain in virtual possession of their land 
under the British Government, complications will be less 
likely in the interior. The people will know that private 
property will be respected ; as for the waning of the power 
of their chiefs, they will get accustomed to that also, pro- 
vided a good position is secured to them as respectable 
subjects of the Queen. 

X. The Committee would strongly recommend to Your 
Excellency that the canteens be closed, which have been 
open for trade among the natives of Griqualand West. The 
most respectable Griquas petitioned Your Excellency to this 
effect some time ago. No ruler would willingly allow to be 
opened a canteen among such a people as the Griquas and 
Bechuanas — provided that his object was the highest good 
of the people themselves. Canteens are unmitigated curses 
to all connected with them, and in reality frustrate the 
highest work of a good government. The Committee would 
anticipate the best results from shutting up " Canteens " 
throughout the country, and trust it may speedily take 
place. 

XL Into the detail of the scheme for the government of 
these people we do not enter. It is evident that the success 
of this or any other scheme would greatly depend on the 
character of those to whom working out will be entrusted. 

It is one thing to get men accustomed to treat all natives 
as "niggers" or "black fellows," with indiscriminate con- 
tempt and carelessness. It is quite another thing to get a 
magistrate who would be filled with the idea that as a servant 
of the Queen he would be bound to treat all her subjects 
with justice, and to show courtesy to all. 

Sir Bartle Frere, who had already been in com- 
munication with Mackenzie, was profoundly impressed 
with the wisdom of the plan now submitted to him. 
On his return from the Transvaal, vid Kimberley, he 
invited his missionary-correspondent to meet him at 
the latter place, where he expected also to confer with 
Colonel Warren. There, then, Mackenzie, for the first 
time, met face to face one whom he had long admired 
and with whom he formed, from that date, a warm 
friendship. Sir Bartle Frere decided that the scheme 



^32 JOHN MACKENZIE 

submitted to him ought to be at once adopted and 
put into operation ; but he saw that it would require 
to be begun by one who understood the entire situa- 
tion, and in whom the natives would have deep 
confidence. He accordingly proposed that Mackenzie 
himself should accept the position of Commissioner 
for South Bechuanaland, at a salary of ^looo per 
annum, that he should have under him a number of 
magistrates, and be supported by a body of mounted 
police, probably to number about 200. If Mackenzie 
agreed to undertake this work, a proclamation was at 
once to be drawn up, and, with the consent of Her 
Majesty, was to be issued, announcing that the region 
concerned would henceforth be treated as a " Territory " 
under the British crown. To the proposals thus made 
to him the man who twenty years before had been 
ordained to the life of a missionary had only one 
answer to give, and it v/as given firmly and decisively. 
He could not give up his life-work, even to undertake 
a position of such importance as this. 

So anxious was the High Commissioner to secure 
the services of Mackenzie, that another plan was pro- 
posed which seemed to the latter both feasible and 
consonant with his life-purpose. According to this 
plan, Mackenzie was to be appointed as native com- 
missioner, with the same salary as before, and with a 
group of magistrates under him, it being understood 
that he was to continue as missionary and Tutor at 
Kuruman, giving only part of his time to the service 
of the Government. It was further understood that 
his civil appointment would only continue for two or 
three years, until the whole of the region affected had 
been brought under the new system of law, and British 
officers had become accustomed to its working and 
had gained the confidence of native chiefs and their 
peoples. Mackenzie agreed to this proposal, with the 
understanding that it must be submitted for ratifica- 



JOHN MACKENZIE'S CHOICE 233 

tion to the Directors of his Society in London, so far as 
his part was concerned, as well as to the Colonial Office, 
so far as the Imperial aspect was concerned. So anxious 
was Sir Bartle Frere to see this plan adopted that he 
wrote a letter to the Directors, earnestly requesting 
them to allow their missionary to do this special work 
for the sake of the country in which their missions 
were placed. Mackenzie, on June 3rd, 1879, wrote to 
the Directors, describing the whole situation and the 
proposal which Sir Bartle Frere had made : — 

As a loyal agent of the L. M. S. I do not wish to embark 
in anything, even for the direct benefit and elevation of the 
people, without laying the matter before the Directors. 
What I do, brethren, for the pacification and settlement of 
the natives in the country, I would do in the same spirit in 
which I would doctor their bodies, or perform for them any 
of those numerous kindnesses which it is in the power of a 
missionary to do. It is my opinion that, as a missionary, I 
could do the work from a vantage-ground — a work which is 
evidently for the general benefit. It will probably be accom- 
plished in, say, two years, when it is to be hoped there will 
be a population here thankful, not only for the spiritual 
instruction they have received from the L. M. S., but also 
for the scheme of settlement devised and executed for their 
benefit by one of your agents. I am aware that by acting 
as I propose to do I am stretching the letter of some of our 
rules ; but I think the position in which I am placed is quite 
an exception, and I trust the broad-minded Board of 
Directors of the London Missionary Society will sanction the 
present endeavour to elevate and establish a people who have 
already received from them so many blessings. Of course, I am 
aware that in undertaking these duties I entail upon myself a 
great amount of hard work ; and it is possible that health, 
or ability, or something, may give way. In the meantime I 
am not at all afraid ; but hope that at this crisis in the 
people's history, with God's good hand upon me, I may be 
able, along with my usual duties, to accomplish this special and 
incidental work. In concluding this necessarily egotistical 
letter I beg the Directors to understand, that my promise to 
the High Commissioner is to give three or four hours per 
day to the settlement and government of the country. It is 



234 JOHN MACKENZIE 

not intended ^that I shall have judicial functions ; there are 
four English magistrates to be appointed for this work. The 
administrative work which I am asked to do will be of great 
consequence at the commencement of English rule over 
Bechuanaland ; but when the vessel has passed the first sand- 
banks, the special pilot will, I hope, be no longer needed. 

The reply to this letter, from the Directors, con- 
sisted of further inquiries in a series of questions which 
called forth from Mackenzie, on September 25, 1879, 
a very full set of corresponding explanations. The 
most important of these are as follows : — 

^ KURUMAN via KiMBERLEY, 

2^th Sept. 1879. 

I. How has the land been acquired by the Government ? 
The country has been partly conquered and partly ceded 

to the English Government by its chiefs. It is the intention, 
I believe, to proclaim South Bechuanaland as under British 
" protection " ; so that as a " territory " the unbending and 
letter formality of English law might not at once be brought 
to bear upon the natives. 

II. Opinion and feeling of natives on annexation. 

The more inteUigent part of the people of Kuruman were 
long ago in favour of being under such an equal law as they 
understood that of the English to be. . . . In my opinion, the 
common people and the vassals are rejoiced at the advent 
of the English rule. 

I am in correspondence with chiefs of the surrounding 
tribes. They are undoubtedly uneasy ; the best people are 
anxious to have a settlement ; the bad people endeavouring 
to spread evil reports. There is one cause of uneasiness — what 
is to be done with the land ? So far as the governing of the 
country is concerned, the chiefs and the people have advisedly 
given themselves up to the English Government, but they are 
anxious as to the fountains ; the present delay and apparent 
hesitation detract so far from the English character and 
position. 

III. Are the natives hostile or suspicious towards the 
missionaries ? 

So far as I am concerned I never regarded the natives as 
hostile to missionaries. It is a fact that in their late conceited 



JOHN MACKENZIE'S CHOICE 235 

uprising the word was given by the natives on the Orange 
River that not even missionaries were to be spared ; but that 
order was given with the idea of making " siccar " or thorough, 
rather than on account of anything charged against the 
missionaries. . . . 

Under this query I may mention that, when I came here 
in 1876, the work which I had to do in building the Institution 
was very unpopular. . . . There is now the best feeling towards 
us in the Bechuana mind. I have received spontaneous 
messages from chiefs and head-men living at a distance, in 
which they warmly thanked me for what I was doing in the 
country for peace, and for the establishment of the people. 

IV. Is it understood that you will be a Government official 
with a salary ? What will be your probable work ? How far 
have you been doing this work up to the present time ? 

I should be a Government official, and have a salary. 
From its point of view, the Government desires more than 
an outside helper — one on whom they can rely. Should 
the sanction of the Home Government be obtained, it was 
intended to proclaim the ceded and conquered territory as 
far as the Molopo river. This country was to be divided 
into four magistracies : one at Taungs ; another at Sehube 
(East Molopo) ; a third at Morokweng (West Molopo dis- 
trict), and the fourth, who should also be a local judge, and 
review cases of appeal, was to be stationed at Kuruman, or 
rather Batlaros. In the meantime, these magistrates were to 
be captains of police composed of Europeans and trustworthy 
natives. All this was to be under a " Commissioner " (or 
whatever he might be called), who in turn would be under 
the Administrator of Griqualand West and the High Com- 
missioner at the Cape. This office of Commissioner is the 
one offered to me ; and the one I have accepted in the 
manner and to the extent related to you in my former letter 
on the subject. The territory from the Molopo to Griqua- 
land West, and from the Hart river to the Kalahari, would 
be under my care. The office would be purely adminis- 
trative ; the judicial functions would be performed by the 
magistrates and judge, assisted in the first instance, and no 
doubt for years, by the various native chiefs ; and, if my 
policy were carried out, I should consent to be held in 
the usual sense responsible for the peace, government and 
progress of the territory. For about, a year this work has 
been virtually in my hands, having been placed there by the 



236 JOHN MACKENZIE 

Administrator and the Acting Administrator of Griqualand 
West. 

Some important movements and many little matters, which 
taken together make a polic)^, have been directed by me, 
and have been carried out by the officers and men of the 
Border Police on the one hand, and by native chiefs, trust- 
worthy native messengers, etc., on the other. But I think it 
right to inform you that, although such has been my position 
up to the time I write this letter, I have never received a 
penny of Government money. On the contrary, although I 
have had severe losses in cattle and sheep while the dis- 
turbances were going on, and captured cattle are constantly 
passing the station, I positively declined repeated invitations 
to put in my claim for compensation. So that I am not 
beholden to the Government in the way of personal obliga- 
tion ; the services which I have been able to render have 
been, from the Government point of view, worth a good deal. 
I may mention also that I had made the promise I gave at 
Kimberley before the question of salary came up. The salary 
offered to me as Commissioner is ;z^iooo per annum. 

VII. How will taking this work affect your missionary 
position and influence, and that of other missionaries? 

The circumstances of the Batlaping as to the land 
question are such that my own position and influence as 
a missionary, and indirectly that of my brethren, would 
be strengthened and increased were I able to carry through 
the policy as to land, which I have already explained to the 
Directors. It would be regarded, and justly, as a case of the 
missionary coming to the assistance of the native and getting 
for him his rights. 

VIII. If released from missionary connection and work 
for say two years could you at the end of that time resume 
our work ? 

So far as my judgment goes, my work as Commissioner 
would be far from lowering me in the natives' eyes ; what 
would tend to lower me would be the statement which the 
enemies of that work would delight to spread " He is no longer 
a missionary now, he is just like the other Government 
servants now." If that could be said with absolute truth it 
would tell against me so far — in cases in which no explana- 
tion would be given as to why I had left the Society ; and 
the people who are unfavourable to the natives and unfavour- 
able to their rising in society would no doubt keep back all 



JOHN MACKENZIE'S CHOICE 237 

explanation which would be to my honour. It is my idea 
that I could best do the work as a missionary. 

IX. How am I to do it — how can I give three or four 
hours daily to this work without sacrificing the interests of 
the Society, in the duties laid upon me by the Directors ? 

By downright hard work. This is the only explanation I 
can give. I may however add that having, as Tutor, to do 
with students who have no literature to which they can refer 
after leaving the Seminary, I made it a point at Shoshong to 
write out my lessons to them in every department, which 
they copied for after reference. Although one sees reason 
to add to or improve such lessons, they are now extant, and 
do not need to be re-written. I could not have done the 
work which I accomplished during the first years of my 
teaching at Shoshong, with the political work which I have 
done for the people here. The thing would have been 
simply impossible. But as at Shoshong I was the tutor and 
the missionary during the day, easy of access to everybody 
and anybody, while at night I was the student and lecture- 
writer ; so here by day work and night work I manage to 
pull along. 

There are some duties here which have devolved on me 
from the force of circumstances, and not by any appoint- 
ment of the Directors — for instance the superintendence of the 
agricultural work connected with the Institution gardens 
which are 13 in number. I believe that I have shown that 
I am willing to do anything for the Society ; and in acting 
as builder of the Institution I was doing work as much out- 
side pure missionary work as is the agricultural department 
still in my hands, or that of Political Commissioner which I 
am also transacting. 

I take it for granted that those who freely mingle in 
politics at home — having before them their great and worthy 
aims — must have sympathy with the missionary who is not 
afraid to go, as it were, bodily into the conflict of frontier 
society, addressed now by the European, now by the 
native ; now by the chiefs and head-men, then by th 
Colonial Government; who strives to have a kindly and 
straightforward and helpful word for men all round. 

Some English dealers will cheat and take advantage of 
legal forms unknown to the native ; almost all the natives 
are ignorant and therefore suspicious, and liable to go off at 
a tangent under a misapprehension. In some cases the 



238 JOHN MACKENZIE 

missionary sees all this take place, deploring that it is not 
his work to interfere, contenting himself in a paragraph in 
his next communication to the Directors, in which he de- 
scribes his own trials and the peoples' sufferings from 
the abandoned white men or from the misgovernment 
and misconduct of European officials. In other cases the 
missionary is a man, at whatever station placed, to whom 
men of all opinions and colours go for his advice and 
assistance when they need it ; thus called upon he is not 
afraid to go into their grievances and difficulties, exposing 
now the white and then the black man ; for it is not the case 
that the fault is always on one side. In this case the mis- 
sionary becomes a power in the country. Europeans seek 
his advice and assistance, chiefs and people with a real 
grievance know where they have a friend. 

Perhaps it will simplify matters, if I now formally request 
the Directors to be allowed to accept of this Commissioner- 
ship while retaining the position which I at present hold as 
an agent of the L.M.S. During the past year I have done 
the work of this office : no one has hinted to me that I have 
neglected any of my duties as Tutor, etc. As practical men, 
therefore, the Directors will, I hope, hold this to be a con- 
clusive answer to theoretical objections or surmises of evil. 
The whole case is on the face of it exceptional ; and will no 
doubt be thus judged by the Directors. 

The Commissionership means the social establishment of 
the people in civilized life ; the Tutorship means their moral 
and spiritual development and elevation. Solemnly, I do 
not know which is the greater work. I aspire to the honour 
of doing both ; and say to the Directors, let it be tried ; if I 
fail either as Commissioner or as Tutor it will soon be 
apparent. Pray that in this and all our affairs the will of 
the Lord may be done by you and by me. 

During the ensuing months, while the Directors in 
London were considering this proposal and its effect 
upon the future of their missions in South Africa, 
Mackenzie continued his work as the adviser of the 
representatives of the Queen in Bechuanaland, and 
was indeed practically carrying on the work, as he 
had been doing for more than a year, to which it was 
proposed now formally to appoint him. He wrote 






JOHN MACKENZIE'S CHOICE 239 

various important letters and memoranda to the High 
Commissioner, to Colonel Lanyon and Colonel Warren, 
and also to the Colonial Secretary in London, dis- 
cussing the various aspects of the Bechuanaland 
problem as they presented themselves month after 
month. Towards the end of the year 1879, he was 
alarmed to find that the authorities had begun to 
discuss the withdrawal of the police from Bechuanaland, 
and that their number was being then actually reduced. 
It has been urged that the British could do nothing 
else than withdraw at this time, because they had gone 
into Bechuanaland on a punitive expedition against 
robbers and murderers. They had, indeed, in order to 
accomplish this, been forced into relations of various 
kinds with the native chiefs at whose towns the 
fugitives took refuge, and, in order to allay the ex- 
citement which had broken out, they incidentally 
found it necessary to settle some quarrels over 
rights of property. But the whole matter, it is said, 
must be viewed as a military operation which gave 
the Bechuanas no right to expect that the British 
would remain, nor gave the latter the right to remain 
without a formal proclamation from the Queen. 
Whether or not this be the strict letter of the law, 
the substantial facts seemed to Mackenzie, and must 
seem probably to all fair-minded people, to put 
another interpretation upon the responsibility of 
Great Britain at that time and in that region. The 
effect of the military expedition had been to shatter 
finally all semblance of native rule. There was not 
to be found in South Bechuanaland a single native 
chief who now had as much authority over his own 
people as before the advent of Colonel Lanyon and 
his volunteers. The successful military operations of 
Colonel Warren, and above all his patient and humane 
and kindly and wise dealings with the natives in 
settlement of their difficulties and in prevention of 



240 JOHN MACKENZIE 

various attempts of white men to rob them of their 
lands, had made him and his officers practically rulers 
of the land as representatives of the Queen, and had 
won the hearts of the people. Already, in 1878, 
Mackenzie had written urgently to Colonel Lanyon 
to say, " I repeat it, we are entirely without govern- 
ment, and no temporary chastisement will meet our 
case." Colonel Lanyon afterwards found this to be 
the case, for he himself wrote to Sir Bartle Frere,^ 
saying : — 

My own opinion is that Mankoroane is powerless here for 
good or evil, and is, like all other Batlaping chiefs, a mere 
puppet in the hands of the mischievous natives of his tribe. 
In either case, however, it would seem desirable that some 
steps should be taken for placing those territories hitherto 
under his charge under some more powerful government, 
which would naturally be that of Her Majesty. 

And Colonel Warren also discovered gradually how 
complete the disintegration of native government 
had become. The following extracts will illustrate his 
impressions : — 

Makolokue states that he has been unable to control his 
people ; that some of them went down to fight at Campbell 
in June. ... I am endeavouring to make such arrangements 
as will allow all the people who are quiet to go on with their 
plowing at once, so as to prevent a famine in the land."^ 

And again, 

Kuruman: I have issued a notice that while there is 
military occupation in those parts, and pending the just and 
lawful settlement of the land claims, no sales of land or 
houses are to take place without the sanction of the officer 
commanding the field force. This is to prevent land-jobbers 
coming up here to buy up all the land at low prices, and to 
ruin the natives, as they have been ruined in Griqualand 
West.3 

Mackenzie gives an interesting illustration of the 
^C. 2454, p. 27. 2^ 2222, pp. 111-113. 3(3 2252, p.3. 



JOHN MACKENZIE'S CHOICE 241 

extent to which this disorganisation had struck the 
natives themselves : — 

One of my messengers, an important member of Sechele's 
tribe (in North Bechuanaland), where the chief is a chief, 
was very much struck with the absence of all government or 
supremacy of anyone at Morokweng. The discussion in 
the khotla, or court yard, was not decorous or respectable, 
according to this native messenger's idea. Everyone spoke 
at the same time, people turned their backs on their chief, 
shouted and talked while their superiors were trying to make 
themselves heard. 

The chiefs not only knew that they had lost control 
of their people, but knew also that the best blessing 
which could come to them would be annexation to the 
Queen's dominions. Of eight important chiefs with 
whom Colonel Warren came into personal communica- 
tion, and most of whom he personally visited, no less 
than six sent in petitions praying to be taken under 
the government of Queen Victoria ! Obviously Great 
Britain was now in possession and in actual control of 
South Bechuanaland, and both whites and blacks took 
it for granted that no retreat was possible. To all 
alike it appeared clear that the British Government 
had come under moral obligations to carry on what 
she had begun, and that now to withdraw would be 
practically a criminal course. Colonel Lanyon put the 
matter in a nutshell when he expressed his opinion to 
Colonel Warren : — "One thing is, I think, quite certain, 
that it will never be left again to the state of anarchy 
which prevailed there before." While then Bechuana- 
land had been occupied for military purposes, it was 
evident that the occupation had resulted in a displace- 
ment of the pre-existing native administration and the 
substitution, for the time being, of British authority in 
the country. The dismay of all concerned was very 
great, therefore, when it began to be whispered that 
the British police were being withdrawn before any 

Q 



242 JOHN MACKENZIE ^ 

arrangement was made for the government of the 
land. Mackenzie, in December 1879, addressed a 
strong protest to the High Commissioner as well as 
to the Administrator of Griqualand West. In this 
protest he described the anarchy of the country so 
far as the chiefs were concerned, and their dependence 
upon the presence of Major Stanley Lowe and his 
body of police. He urged that a withdrawal without 
explanation would make matters worse than they were 
before, especially since the Imperial Government had 
not yet decided what to do with the territory. When 
this decision was reached, and if it led to the abandon- 
ment of the country, the fact ought to be publicly 
announced and explained to the native chiefs and 
peoples. At present the native chiefs were at a 
loss to account for all this delay in the settlement of 
their country. Nevertheless, had it not been for the 
encroachments above referred to, both chiefs and 
people were willing to believe that all would come 
right, especially in connection with the " provisional " 
acceptance of the surrender of their lands by Colonel 
Warren. To them the word " provisional " had no 
meaning when they saw power actually lost by them 
and actually exercised by others. Their chieftains' 
authority was lost, not " provisionally " but absolutely 
and for ever, their farms were being grabbed, not 
" provisionally," but finally and unconditionally. 

In his letter to Sir Bartle Frere, Mackenzie gives 
fresh instances of the cruelty and the absolutely 
unprincipled methods which Europeans, most of 
whom were Dutchmen, employed, in order to obtain 
possession of the most desirable farm lands in the 
country. 

Later in the same month (December 1879), 
Mackenzie addressed an important letter both to 
Sir Bartle Frere and Sir Garnet Wolseley, who 
were both High Commissioners in South Africa at 



1 



JOHN MACKENZIE'S CHOICE 243 

the same time, according to that curious arrange- 
ment which paralysed the former, and made the 
subsequent war of the Boer revolutionaries in the 
Transvaal shorter and easier. In this letter he dis- 
cusses the entire subject of the relations of Great 
Britain to South Africa, and especially to its native 
territories. At this point only the following ex- 
tracts can be given, but they will suffice to show 
how practically he was studying the problem, not 
only as it affected Bechuanaland, but all other parts 
of the country as well. For years Mackenzie had 
been brooding, dreaming, praying, working over 
" South Africa " or " Austral Africa," from Cape 
Town to the Zambesi, and from ocean to ocean. 
The letter discusses some matters which have now 
passed beyond discussion, but the following sections 
refer to problems which are still very much alive, 
and for that reason are selected here : — 

In arranging for that " fresh departure," which ought to be 
the sequel of recent complications, disturbances, and wars, 
in various parts of Southern Africa^ it is of the utmost import- 
ance not only to know the widely different character and 
wants of the races with whom the English Government has 
to deal, but to profit by the experience of the past, and to 
have a carefully considered scheme for the future, eschewing 
all haphazard or improvised policy. 

Responsibility is thrust upon the English Government in 
Southern Africa. It is impossible to avoid it, except by 
abandoning the country altogether. The northward pro- 
gress of Europeans in South Africa has been steady and 
rapid in the past. It takes place with the consent, and at 
the request, of the native chiefs and people, who welcome 
missionaries, travellers, and traders. They have a keen 
sense of the benefits flowing to themselves from this con- 
tact. But the government of the country by the chiefs 
becomes more and more difficult after the advent of the 
Europeans in numbers. The new wine of European 
energy, persistence, and sometimes recklessness, cannot be 
contained in the old skin bottles of tribal laws and 
customs. In several instances the chiefs have recognised 



244 JOHN MACKENZIE 

this fact, and have asked for the help of the English 
Government. Such a reasonable request has usually been 
refused. The Government could not consent to "Annexa- 
tion," or "increase of responsibility." The new wine and 
the old bottles are therefore let alone by the Government. 
Thieving, murder, war, inevitably follow; thousands, it may 
be millions, of pounds are now spent ; precious lives are 
lost ; recriminations take place as to who was to blame, 
as between political parties both in England and the Cape 
Colony, and occasionally as between the Home Government 
and their officers in South Africa. 

Now the blame lies with the English Government, to the 
extent that England has no South African policy worthy of 
the name; and in so far as it has one, viz., to let things 
alone as they are, and to shrink from responsibility. It is 
worse than no policy, for it is practically impossible, while 
it so far hampers the Government in South Africa as to cause 
them to do things in a shuffling and uncertain manner. 

Will Your Excellency allow me to explain that, coming 
to this country as a missionary in 1858, my great desire, 
apart from the spiritual aspect of my work, was to help 
to elevate some tribe of Africans, so that they could endure 
the shock of meeting the wave of European cultivation, etc., 
etc., and not be driven away by it ? Close and careful study of 
the subject led me in the course of time to see ,that politically 
it would be impossible for my wish to be fulfilled ; the con- 
stituent elements of the tribes would remain, but the tribal 
laws and policy were destined to pass away. I noticed that 
events were taking place rapidly in South Africa a hundred- 
fold more rapidly than similar events had moved forward in 
the history of Europe ; events over which no government had 
control, but which occurred with such rapidity and force, 
that they may be regarded as "a law," or as the "will of 
God." And in this light I have come to regard the mingling 
of the races in Southern Africa. I believe that it is the will 
of God that it should take place. No one can prevent it. 
The question therefore comes to be, How is it to be regu- 
lated, and by whom ? 

Having made the subject a special study for many years, 
I beg to offer a few remarks upon it at the present crisis. 
Sincerely wishing well to all classes and colours in this 
country, I desire that English rule should be gradually, and 
with due caution, extended over the native tribes ; and that it 



JOHN MACKENZIE'S CHOICE 245 

should be done in such a manner that England should regard 
her work in this land with pleasure and with pride, instead of 
impatient bewilderment, as at present. 

Bechuanaland 

The Bechuanas are like the Basutos, but divided into 
small tribes, and inhabiting a less generous country than 
Basutoland. They have made considerable progress in Chris- 
tianity and civilization, and the wealthy men are living after 
the fashion of farmers or Boers — having opened up fountains 
and led out the water for the irrigation of their lands. The 
poorer men are good servants. There are no labourers or 
herds so much thought of in the Colonies as the Maccatees 
or Mantatees, as the Colonists call Bechuanas. 

The chiefs are favourably impressed towards the English 
Government in the southern districts. Those who were dis- 
affected have been subdued, and their country is still 
occupied. Almost all the Bechuana chiefs have been in 
correspondence with the English Government, and have ex- 
pressed at some time the desire to be under English 
protection. 

Their ignorance of the English language and of our 
English laws and modes of procedure render it undesirable 
that they should at once be brought entirely under their 
unbending, and often to a native, incomprehensible routine. 
To step at once from native to English law, as was recently 
done in Griqualand West, would be unfair to the Bechuanas 
and would have the effect of placing them at the mercy of 
designing men. 

Proposed Territory System 

It is well known that in the political economy of the 
United States, a " Territory " is a state in embryo. I pro- 
pose that in accomplishing a nobler and more Christian 
work in Southern Africa than Europeans have placed before 
themselves in America, England should institute a pro- 
visional government over tribes or districts conquered or 
ceded, by means of which justice could be administered 
and peace preserved, while at the same time the people 
would be trained to understand and to appreciate our 
English law and procedure. This is what I have called the 
" Territory " system. The same standard would be before 



246 JOHN MACKENZIE 

the Administrator of a Territory as before the Governor of a 
Colony ; the same code of laws would be the guide of the 
Territory Judge or Magistrate as of his Colonial brother ; 
but in the former case the mode of procedure would be 
simpler, and more adapted to a people emerging from an 
uncultivated state. 

I take the liberty to propose that Bechuanaland should be 
proclaimed to be under the British Government as a 
" Territory," and not as completely under our laws. 
Further, I would suggest that magistrates should be ap- 
pointed at suitable places, and that taxes should be levied. 
The land should not be saleable in said Territory ; but 
occupants of fountains should receive a lease for say ten 
years — to be renewed on approval of an imperial officer, 
after personal inspection ; but if said officer on visiting the 
farm found that improvement had not been made as to 
house - building, enclosing, irrigating, etc., or that that oc- 
cupant had become by habit and repute a cattle-lifter, and 
his farm a den of thieves, the lease should not be renewed 
to this tenant, but should be given instead to one of a list 
of applicants for farms kept by the Government. 

By this system you would also secure a contented labour- 
ing population ; for while some members of such a native 
farmer's family would stay on the farm and work it, others 
would go out and work for wages. 

In the course of time, when the English language was 
known by the people, when they had become instructed as 
to our laws and modes of procedure, the " territory " system 
might cease ; and union take place with some neighbouring 
colony or province. 

By this scheme, to which any Bechuana chief would give 
his ready consent, you would allow the natives who are indus- 
trious, energetic, and intelligent to rise in society ; and thus, 
instead of being the bitterest and most dangerous class among 
the natives, as they have been in some parts of South Africa, 
you would make them the warm friends of the Government 
under which they had risen. At the same time you would, 
by the prosperity of these successful men, stop the mouths 
of the ill-disposed natives who would wish their fellow- 
countrymen to believe that it was hopeless to look for 
prosperity under the white man's rule. 

A copy of this memorandum, which dealt also with 



JOHN MACKENZIE'S CHOICE 247 

Zululand and other parts of South Africa, was for- 
warded to the Colonial Secretary in London, Sir 
Michael Hicks Beach. 

In the beginning of 1880 Mackenzie received the 
announcement from London that the Directors of the 
Missionary Society did not agree to his accepting the 
position and doing the work offered to him by Sir 
Bartle Frere. The Directors appear to have been 
under a misapprehension of almost all the main points 
which Mackenzie had tried to make so clear. His 
reply to their refusal is given here, not to prove that 
they were in the wrong, but because Mackenzie speaks 
his soul out in these paragraphs with the warmth of 
an earnest and unselfish heart. The fact is that the 
Directors made the mistake of arguing their case. If 
they had simply said, " We will never under any cir- 
cumstances allow one of our agents to do Government 
work, however deeply it concerns the welfare of the 
natives and of the mission, because we must at all 
hazards avoid creating a precedent," there would have 
been nothing to say. But they went into the merits 
of this case, and an answer was possible. 

KURUMAN, \oth Feb. 1880. 

My Dear Mr Whitehouse, — I have received yours of 
Nov. 27, conveying to me the decision of the Directors on 
the question of my performing certain political functions 
while doing my work as a missionary, tutor, etc., at Kuruman. 

I acquiesce in that decision in accordance with my state- 
ment to that effect to Sir Bartle Frere, and to the Directors 
themselves in my letter to them on the subject. Their 
decision was to settle the question ; and it has accordingly 
settled it. 

What I had feared however has happened. I did what I 
could to show that the case was an exceptional one, and 
that, in ordinary circumstances, I should have no desire to 
do Government work. The answer of the Directors, however, 
as I read it, is not to an exceptional, case at all, but to the 
general question of the union of such offices, 



248 JOHN MACKENZIE 

You appear to have misunderstood my full and unreserved 
statement concerning written lessons or lectures. I explained 
that it was by hard work and self-denial that I could do this 
Government work — more especially by night work. My 
illustration was that at Shoshong I was in class and at the 
disposal of the people during the whole day, and that my 
lectures were chiefly written at night. Not having still to 
write these lectures I felt that so much time could be given to 
other work. In no part of my letter did I suggest or imply 
that I would make my written lectures alone or chiefly do 
duty for the work of a tutor. I thought that I had made it 
plain that my intention was to teach as I had done, but, not 
having now to arrange and " get up " the lectures, the time I 
had devoted to that could be given to something else. I 
have always been fully convinced of the absolute necessity of 
oral instruction in the case of the young men in the 
Institution, with written lectures to be copied by them to 
secure exactness, and for after reference at their stations by 
those who have no literature. I must confess to a feeling of 
surprise that you should have felt called upon to make such 
remarks to me on this subject as occur in your letter. Upon 
reflection I think you will agree with me that if I had thought 
lightly of my work here, I would have given it up ; and that, 
refusing to give it up, it is at least not likely that I should 
perform its duties in a slovenly or perfunctory manner, as 
hinted by you. 

Another remark I would refer to. You are sorry that I 
have been doing this Government work, and believe that 
my doing so has meant much loss to the Mission. Nothing 
could show me more plainly than this statement that you are 
labouring under a complete misapprehension as to the nature of 
the work which I have been doing. If you knew the details 
it would be impossible for you to make that remark. It is 
far from the truth. In effect I have been fighting for the 
natives. You say in effect that I am to let this alone ; and 
you expect, among other things, that the natives will think 
more highly of me and my brethren in consequence ! Were 
the policy carried out one opposed to the interests of the 
natives, and I gave it my support, then your remark would 
have had foundation. As it is, those who dislike my influence 
and work are the land-jobbers and white claimants for farms. 
It is distressing to them that I should be trusted, both by 
the natives and the Government. When you say theoreti- 



JOHN MACKENZIE'S CHOICE 249 

cally, " So much work done in the settlement of the people, 
so much loss to the mission," you never made a more 
inapplicable remark. 

I feel however that only personal intercourse could place 
the Directors and myself in full sympathy on this subject. 
Correspondence would seem to have failed. Expressions of 
thankfulness and confidence come to me from chiefs and 
people on account of what I have been doing. This is fact, 
and it is quite in the teeth of your theories as to the result of 
such work. When missionaries let alone things and they 
went deplorably wrong, they were suspected and blamed by 
the ignorant people for having helped to bring about the 
evil, because what had happened was to the benefit of 
Europeans. On the other hand when a missionary comes to 
the front and speaks and acts in behalf of the people, and 
endeavours to secure for them a good position under English 
Government, he, of course, secures the confidence both 
of heathen and Christians. Mark my words : if things go 
wrong in Bechuanaland, the missionaries will be blamed by 
the natives, no matter how innocent they might be. Things 
are not likely to go right without such active assistance as I 
have been able to give. There are few who are both able 
and willing to carry through such a policy. 

Before I leave this subject I wish formally to say to the 
Directors : In refusing your consent to my formally assisting 
in the political settlement of the affairs of this territory, on 
certain principles favourable to the natives which were explained 
to you, I think you have made a grave mistake, in the 
interests of the natives and in the interests of the mission, 
which are one and the same. 

Throughout the year 1880 the affairs of Bechuana- 
land remained, as he said to Mr John Noble of 
Cape Town, " in awkward suspense." A provisional 
acceptance of the surrender of their territories by the 
various chiefs had been granted by Colonel Warren 
in 1879, but these documents of surrender having 
been forwarded to head-quarters, were never heard of 
again. Even the courteous refusal of the wonderful 
gift of a kingdom was withheld ! The chiefs waited 
on with deepening chagrin. They communicated with 
Mackenzie, who strove as best he could to encourage 



250 JOHN MACKENZIE 

them, even when his judgment was perplexed and his 
heart sore with protracted disappointment. The Home 
Government did not know its own mind. The Zulu 
war, owing to mismanagement, had brought discredit 
alike upon Sir Bartle Frere, who was not responsible 
for the mismanagement, and on the Home Government. 
A general election was imminent which, it was felt, 
would probably result in the return of Mr Gladstone 
to power. He and others of his party had so spoken 
on South African affairs as to make confusion in that 
part of the world worse confounded. No one could 
possibly foretell what policy would be adopted in any 
part of South Africa. What would be done with 
Zululand, or with the Transvaal, or with Bechuanaland, 
or with Griqualand ? These regions were all in need 
simply of firmness and justice and wisdom ; their 
names were made the occasion of party strife. And 
this resulted in the worst blunders of misgovernment. 
The police force in Bechuanaland was gradually 
reduced, until at last, in April 1881, they were finally 
and completely withdrawn. On this Mackenzie has 
said ^ : — 

The reader can imagine the weariness of these years of 
uncertainty. The question was ever, " Has not the mouth 
of the Government come yet ? " " No, we hear nothing," 
would be inevitably the reply. And to our shame as an 
Imperial Power, be it said, when the last policeman left 
Bechuanaland, he did so obeying a mere local police order. 
No warning from the High Commissioner was given to the 
chiefs ; no reply to their offer of obedience and submission ; 
no advice as to the future; the policemen just left — the military 
occupation of three years ended ; and Bechuanaland became 
what every confidential adviser and commissioner of Her 
Majesty had said it would become — the abode of anarchy, 
filibustering, and outrage. 

In this year (i 88 1) the retrocession of the Transvaal 
took place, and the Pretoria Convention was drawn up 

^ Austral- Africa, vol. i., p. 118, 



JOHN MACKENZIE'S CHOICE 251 

and signed. In the course of negotiations which led 
to this Convention the western boundary of the 
Transvaal was carefully discussed and its course was 
defined anew. The reader will remember that one 
of the main features of this Convention, which gave 
back self-government to the Transvaal, was the pro- 
vision that a British Resident should live at Pretoria to 
control the relations of the Boer Government to the 
native races, alike within and outside the Transvaal. 
Mr Gladstone made, with reference to this arrangement, 
the extraordinary prophecy that it would enable Great 
Britain to exercise a more direct and actual control 
over the treatment of the natives by the Boers than 
she could exercise even in her own colonies ! Sir 
Evelyn Wood, one of the Commissioners at Pretoria, 
who showed more insight and more independence of 
judgment throughout the proceedings than any other 
representative of Great Britain, foresaw that this 
was an impossible arrangement. He urged, for 
example, that provision must be made for the 
appointment at once of British Residents among the 
tribes both on the western and south-western borders 
of the Transvaal. These Residents would report on 
native affairs to the Resident at Pretoria. Such a plan 
would have so far agreed with the general policy 
which Mackenzie had for years been advocating, and 
perhaps would have helped to fulfil Mr Gladstone's 
prophecy in a small measure. But it was overruled, 
and the result was that these native tribes were left at 
the mercy of the Boers. 

Not long after the last British policeman had left 
Bechuanaland, that pitiable country began to suffer 
painfully from the change. A large number of Boers 
from within the Transvaal began immediately to deal 
with the Bechuanas in the old and familiar ways ; and 
the Resident at Pretoria, in spite of Mr Gladstone's 
prophecy, was absolutely powerless. These Boers did 



252 JOHN MACKENZIE 

not act, of course, officially ; but their names were well 
known, and some of them were men of influence in the 
Transvaal. All representations made at the seat of 
Government were turned aside with clever excuses, 
put off with vague promises, or simply dropped with 
silent contempt. The invasion of Bechuanaland took 
place at two main points, and it was carried out in 
an exceedingly cunning and effective way. In the 
southern part where Mankoroane held sway, an 
ancient quarrel between him and Massow, a chief 
who lived nearer the Transvaal, was revived and 
aggravated. The Boers, under G. J. Van Niekerk, 
at this point offered themselves as volunteers to 
Massow, who accepted their service for the purpose 
of crushing his rival. But as soon as these volunteers 
found themselves in Bechuanaland with the natives at 
their mercy, and the British Government was now 
6000 miles away, they proceeded to settle down 
and form themselves into a Boer republic which 
they called Stellaland, the capital town of which 
was named Vryburg. Further north, in the country 
of the Barolong, there lived an ancient foe of the 
Boers, by name Montsioa, who had as his rival on 
the Transvaal side of the border a young upstart 
called Moshette. Moshette was of course made the 
object of the warm regard of the Boers, and was 
assisted by a number of volunteers. The country 
of Montsioa was invaded under the redoubtable Gey 
Van Pittius. Near Mafeking, which was Montsioa's 
capital, another republic was going to be established 
under the Biblical name "Goshen." Now Montsioa, 
like Mankoroane, had for many years cherished the 
deepest faith in the British Government, and had 
over and over again petitioned to have himself, his 
people, and their country taken under British pro- 
tection and control. He had more than once 
fought against the Boers, had showed himself a 



JOHN MACKENZIE'S CHOICE 253 

clever diplomat, and through many years of pres- 
sure and persecution had succeeded in maintaining 
his freedom. In the war of the Boers against 
Great Britain (1881) he, as also Mankoroane, had 
steadily refused to aid the former, even when much 
threatened and hard pressed. When people speak 
of those who fight for their country and their 
independence, pitying a race that has its land 
snatched from their grasp, and piously invoking 
Heaven's curse upon those who rob them of Heaven's 
best blessings, surely they must shed many tears for 
heroes like these ! These men too, although black, 
loved their land, ruled their people with fair success, 
tilled their soil, herded their cattle ; not without honour 
to themselves they were increasingly prosperous, eager 
for education ; and withal they had for long been most 
loyal to the distant " White Queen " whose ways with 
them disappointed them so much. These men were 
heroes, if any have lived in South Africa. Can any one 
blame those Europeans who, as they watched the fate 
of such chiefs and their people, felt themselves roused 
to a white heat of indignation ? They knew that the 
advent of Boer republics meant the advent of the 
Grondwet of the Transvaal Republic, with its law 
that no native could have equal rights in church or 
state with the white man, meant that Montsioa and 
Mankoroane would either be cooped up in narrow 
and famished locations, or would be reduced to the 
position of a degraded serving class without the 
right to own land in their own land ! The question 
which was uppermost in the hearts of men like 
Mackenzie and Sir Bartle Frere at this period of 
South African history, was simply this : Does Great 
Britain realise that by refusing to accept the free 
gift of South Bechuanaland from its own people, 
she is allowing that vast and rich region to be 
annexed by lawless hosts of Europeans, and the 



254 JOHN MACKENZIE 

real owners of that country to be robbed of their 
ancient possessions and trampled under the feet of 
such men as Van Niekerk .and Van Pittius ? 

Throughout 1881 Mackenzie maintained the battle 
for his people by means of letters and communica- 
tions sent alike to the new High Commissioner, Sir 
Hercules Robinson, at Cape Town, and the new 
authorities at the Colonial Office in London. Early 
in 1882 he received permission from the Directors 
to return home for his second furlough. To this 
he refers in two letters to Mr Charles G. Oates. 

KURUMAN, /<3:«. 1 8^^, 1 882. 

My Dear Sir, — I have much pleasure in acknowledging 
receipt of your letter, informing me that you had sent to my 
address a copy of your book describing your brother's travels 
in this country. I thank you much for remembering me in 
this way. Without reference to its own merits I shall treasure 
the volume as a memento of him whose steps in South Africa 
it traced. The volume itself has not come to hand, but my 
experience is that, while such things often move very slowly in 
this country, not many are lost. . . . 

You kindly inquire about our residence here and our 
surroundings. In the language of the advertisements, this 
is quite a " desirable residence," especially if compared with 
our house at Shoshong. Besides the pastoral care of a wide 
district dotted with village churches (I mean small Christian 
communities and not ecclesiastical structures, for the last 
have not got beyond the wattle-and-daub era), I have the 
oversight as Tutor of an Institution recently established for 
training native ministers and evangelists. The missionaries 
select men of experience, who have been tried, and who are 
trusted. They come with their families and live in cottages 
which have been put up for their reception. During their 
stay the wives get some instruction also, as well as the 
children, who are old enough to go to school. We carry 
on things in a quiet, unpretending way, and trust that the 
presence of these men in the villages throughout the country 
will have a very beneficial effect. Christianity has been long 
enough an exotic ; our effort is to make it indigenous. 

I thank you for your invitation to Meanwoodside ; at 



JOHN MACKENZIE'S CHOICE 255 

present it may be looked at by me as one of the pleasant 
possibilities of my sojourn in England. Our Society pre- 
scribes to its missionaries a visit home every ten years ; and 
it is in connection with that rule that our visit takes place. 
At the same time it is of great importance to us as a family 
to be able to go home at this time. The children left in 
Scotland eleven years ago are grown up now, and about to 
leave the University to enter life on their own account. We 
wish to be together as one family, if it please God, even for a 
little while. — With kindest regards, I am ever sincerely yours, 

John Mackenzie. 

KURUMAN, n^d April 1882. 

My Dear Mr Oates, — Since I wrote to you I have 
received " Matabeleland and the Victoria Falls," and I 
have perused it with great interest. You have succeeded 
in producing a beautiful book. ... I rose from its perusal 
with deep regret that the traveller himself was not spared to 
tell his own story. You have done your best; and you will 
allow me to say that your success is gratifying, and to me, 
knowing the circumstances under which you worked, even 
wonderful. But no one knows what hidden ideas were indi- 
cated by the dry notes which came before you for your 
guidance. How suggestive they would have been to him 
who penned them ! 

Let me again thank you for the handsome volume, which I 
shall always prize. And allow me to express my gratification 
at the kindly manner in which my name has been mentioned 
by you. . . . We have begun packing up, and hope to leave 
this place in a month or so. I am afraid the Transvaal will 
again force itself into notice. Their borders are already dis- 
turbed. The truth as to recent border affairs does not seem 
to be known at home. One set of statements is welcomed by 
Her Majesty's Government, and distrusted by the Opposition. 
An opposite story is published in Opposition papers, and is 
stigmatised as " Jingo lies." This does not seem to me very 
admirable as a method of government. I should think 
thousands of Englishmen, when they think of the matter 
at all, feel inclined to ask, " Politics aside, and political 
struggles aside, what are the facts with reference to the 
Transvaal and the natives ? " 

The Transvaal Government is not at war — the Republic is 
at peace ; but a few days ago a party of armed Boers stole 



256 JOHN MACKENZIE 

cattle and shot some dozen herds within fifty miles of this 
place. At their "laager" there are said to be some 200 or 
300 armed and mounted Boers ; their leaders men of influence 
and position in the Transvaal. — With kindest regards, I am 
ever yours sincerely, John Mackenzie. 

With a heavy and sad heart Mackenzie left Bechuana- 
land, dark days lowering before it. He was well received 
at Cape Town by Sir Hercules Robinson, who paid 
close attention to his evidence, his proposals, and his 
arguments. But his mind, as he sailed from Cape 
Town, was fixed on London, and the determination 
was already forming in his heart that he would, if God 
gave him strength, so place the entire facts before the 
Government and the people of Great Britain as to 
bring about a reversal of the disastrous policy which 
had been adopted in South Africa. 



CHAPTER X 

THE MISSIONARY AS POLITICAL EDUCATOR 
(1882, 1883) 

When John Mackenzie landed in England, in July 
1882, he entered on a new career. All that he had 
done hitherto in the way of political work had been 
incidental, and had been ever kept subordinate to the 
various responsibilities of his position as Tutor of the 
Moffat Institution and Pastor of the Kuruman Church. 
But he was now to enter on a course of work which 
gradually reversed the relations of these two supreme 
interests of his public life. He has described, in 
" Austral Africa," the atmosphere of England, on the 
question of South Africa, when he began to breathe it 
in that summer of '82. It was enough to stifle hope. 
The Liberal Government was then in power, under 
Mr Gladstone's leadership, and Lord Kimberley was at 
the head of the Colonial Office. The public mind had 
been dazed and the public heart disgusted by the 
events of the preceding four or five years in South 
Africa. The only people who knew that they had an 
opinion, even when the}' had no real facts on which to 
base it, were those who openly triumphed over the 
retrocession of the Transvaal, and who preached the 
doctrine that Great Britain ought to leave South 
Africa to the Dutch. This section of the Liberal 
party were definite and vociferous, whensoever any 
aspect of South African policy was raised ; to be at 
once definite and vociferous is always very impressive. 

R 2S7 



258 JOHN MACKENZIE 

For the rest, Mackenzie found them all in deep 
ignorance of the facts ; all vaguely felt that " some 
one had blundered," that the true solution of the 
problem had not yet been proposed, but did not know 
where to turn for light or for a leader. The general 
trend of feeling among the Conservatives was that of 
people who having blundered are struck dumb, or 
who prove ineffective as critics of those who commit 
fresh blunders by way of correcting theirs. Mr 
Gladstone had tried to atone for a badly managed 
annexation in 1877, by a worse managed retroces- 
sion in 1 881; and Lord Kimberley was now trying 
by mildness and generosity to win the trust and 
elicit the faithfulness of the Boers, whom Lord 
Carnarvon was supposed to have driven into fear 
and suspicion. 

Mackenzie was therefore confronted with a perplex- 
ing situation as he stepped into the political life of 
London. We have seen abundant proof of the deep 
love which he cherished for his family, of the yearning 
with which he looked forward to that reunion with 
those whom he had left as children and would now 
greet as men and women, learning to call them his 
children still. It is characteristic of his unselfish 
spirit, that sending his wife and family down to 
Scotland, missing the first flush of that joy, he 
remained in London. His " King's business," the 
salvation of Bechuanaland by the British Government 
from an impending destruction, required haste. Within 
a fortnight he organised and held his first meeting, 
and made his first public speech. The meeting was 
called by the Directors of the London Missionary 
Society, and was held in the Westminster Palace 
Hotel on July 25 th. Mackenzie's speech was a clear 
recital of the cruel facts of the case in Bechuanaland. 
He proved to his audience that the Bechuana people 
were not savages. 



AS POLITICAL EDUCATOR 259 

Not long ago a certain town in Bechuanaland was looted. 
The spoils of that town were put up to auction. They were 
much the same as the spoils of a colonial village : you could 
not, through many of the articles, have discovered any black- 
ness about their owners. There were the ploughs and 
agricultural implements of farmers, presses, Staffordshire ware, 
and such things as belonged to small farmers : and I was 
told that some Europeans purchased the new and made-up 
clothing, and wore it. 

He recounted the relations of Great Britain to that 
country, from 1878 to 1881, and the innumerable 
proofs which those tribes had given, through their 
chiefs, of their intense desire to be protected by the 
government of the Queen. He then described the 
manner in which Boers from the Transvaal had been 
invading and swallowing up the lands, and seizing the 
individual farms of these defenceless people. Much 
stress was laid upon the impotence of the British 
Resident at Pretoria, that official through whom Mr 
Gladstone had prophesied that the natives would 
receive, so completely, the watchful oversight and 
strong help of Great Britain. 

I feel there is nothing that I, as an individual, would not 
do to give these people the right to the fountains which they 
are using and the land which they hold. I do not wish 
them treated in any special way, but only in the light of 
English Christianity and justice. Many things I might 
have said or written at an earlier date in the history of 
these disturbances, but I judged it best to be silent. 
Under the present circumstances, however, silence on my 
part would be a crime. 

The speech was printed and widely circulated as a 
pamphlet. 

From that meeting Mackenzie hurried down to 
Scotland, got off the train when it stopped at Porto- 
bello for " taking the tickets," and there met his two 
sons, one of them taller by several inches than himself, 



26o JOHN MACKENZIE 

bearded fellows now, whom he had not seen since 
1 87 1. Only those who have gone through it can 
tell what those trying first hours in a reunited family 
must be. However frank and sincere and full the 
correspondence has been, there is something of a 
bitter experiment involved in that meeting. " Are 
they our children still ? " the parents ask each other 
when the day of severest strain has ended. And the 
hearts of loyal sons and daughters have been wondering 
too in their silent depths, and have been asking and 
answering questions of the keenest kind all that day 
long, such as it would be disloyal for others to face 
who had never passed through that long separation 
to this supreme day of trial and, please God, of 
unspeakable joy. To John Mackenzie it was un- 
speakable joy. 

For six short weeks he had all his children, who 
numbered nine (three sons and six daughters) under 
his roof, four of these weeks being spent in the village 
of Urquhart, near his own beloved Elgin. One day he 
walked with one or two of his boys into Elgin. When 
they had passed the " Institution," where he had 
his schooling, and were in the narrow part of High 
Street, before it widens around the Parish Church, he 
suddenly stopped, struck the pavement with his stick, 
and exclaimed, " I smell Elgin ! " His laughing boys 
looked round and accounted for his discovery of Elgin 
by several shops — odoriferous — which had clustered 
opposite that spot in his boyhood, and by which he 
must often have been arrested as he passed five and 
thirty years before. 

On the 4th of September he took part in the 
ordination of his eldest son as minister of the 
Congregational Church at Montrose. He offered 
the " ordination prayer," and himself led in the 
" laying-on of the hands of the presbytery." It 
was a great satisfaction to him that in this ordain- 



AS POLITICAL EDUCATOR 261 

ing act the ministers of five or six different sections 
of the Evangelical Church took part ; as also that Dr 
Lindsay Alexander of Edinburgh, who had " delivered 
the charge" at his own ordination in 1858, did the 
same for his son in 1882. 

In September, Mackenzie resumed his work of 
informing the British public about Bechuanaland. 
The journeys which he had to make as a represen- 
tative of the London Missionary Society enabled 
him to address a large portion of the most influential 
Nonconformists in the country. And for several 
months thereafter Mr Gladstone's Government was 
made the somewhat unwilling and astonished re- 
cipient of strong resolutions from all parts of 
England, in favour of firm action in Bechuanaland 
and of Imperial protection of the native races. In 
Birmingham Town Hall a large meeting showed a 
very real and earnest interest in the matter. From 
Leeds, Bradford, Bristol, Ashton-under-Lyne, in the 
months of September and October, and from other 
places such as Bolton and Farnworth, in February, 
this demand was made. At these meetings the 
resolutions were discussed at length by well-known 
men. And at most of them Mackenzie was himself 
present to give full information both in public and 
in private. He of course organised the movement 
at each of these places. Between September loth 
and October 24th, he visited twenty-nine places, 
frequently giving two, and even three speeches or 
sermons in one day. 

At this time, acting on the advice of many friends, 
he wrote a letter to Mr Gladstone on the state of 
affairs in Bechuanaland, forwarding his pamphlet, and 
earnestly asking the Prime Minister's personal interest 
in the question, " In spite of all that has transpired," 
he urged, " it is my deliberate opinion that it would be 
easy for England to govern South Africa if a certain 



262 JOHN MACKENZIE 

course were followed." Mr Gladstone's reply seemed 
to indicate a personal indifference on the subject, and 
merely referred his correspondent to the Colonial 
Secretary. 

One of the most valuable allies whom Mackenzie 
found in the provinces was the late Dr R. W. Dale 
of Birmingham. With his usual force and clear- 
ness of judgment, Dale studied the case, and frankly 
gave his aid to his missionary -brother. Some of 
Mackenzie's best letters were addressed to him, 
and they were well repaid by various timely and 
well-placed services which Dale rendered to his 
cause. 

3 Buckingham Villas, Clifton, 
Bristol, \Zth Sept. 1882. 

My Dear Mr Dale, — Thanks for your letter, which 
I got last night, after coming home from the day's 
work. 

I went this morning to " take up the spoor," or track of 
the discussion, and see where the Pall Mall Gazette was on 
this question. I have read the Times., the two notes in the 
Gazette., and your letter in the latter. 

Your position is quite impregnable behind a signed 
Convention. That of the Gazette quite disgraceful ; and 
such writing has been the fruitful cause of deeds of 
wrong in South Africa, inasmuch as lawless men see how 
the land lies ; and that they will be left to do what they 
like. 

" Do you mean War ? " This is supposed to be a poser 
to a Christian minister. What did the Royal Commission, 
the Liberal Government, mean when, leaving the subject of 
the natives within the borders of the Transvaal, they pro- 
ceeded to treat of the natives outside that country ? In case 
outrage or wrong should be committed by Transvaal people 
the settlement should be in the hands of the English 
Resident and the English High Commisioner, and their 
decision should be finall 

Taking the sneering remarks of the Pall Mall as one's 
guide, the opinion is forced on us that an immorality was 



AS POLITICAL EDUCATOR 263 

perpetrated by the English Commissioner and English 
Government when they signed the Convention. They pro- 
fessed to do one thing ; and posed before the religious 
public of England and of Europe as the benevolent doers of 
it. " As heretofore, England would reserve for herself the 
protection of native races," etc., etc. Now, it seems this 
was all bosh and only meant to deceive, and carry forward 
for the time the religious public of England. 

It seems to me impossible to harmonize your position and 
that of the Pall Mall. The one is the open truth ; the 
other is the sinister and sneaking inuendo-making expediency 
of a hand-to-mouth policy. 

There is a practicalness about the step which was taken 
in Birmingham which will commend itself elsewhere, I 
have no doubt. The work of the religious public of Eng- 
land in an African district is in imminent peril through 
the marauding inroads of Boers, in the teeth of a Con- 
vention signed by them and by our own Government. 
What sort of people are the religious people of this country, 
if they would quietly and meekly submit to that without 
giving any sign ? 

And what sort of Government have we got if they will 
righteously and piously make due and formal provisions for 
doing a thing which they have long prided themselves on 
doing — inwardly resolving, all the while, that what they 
openly promise they will secretly deny ? 

What was conceded to the Transvaal was self-government. 
What was advisedly and formally kept from them was 
management of native affairs, either within or beyond the 
Transvaal. If the English Government were to say openly 
and earnestly : We will support the Convention, the 
marauders must leave Bechuanaland, there would be no 
" war." It is the sneers of the Pall Mall Gazette people 
which make wars. 

By the way, what has become of the Anti-Annexation 
Society in the Bechuana matter ? Why don't they give the 
Bechuanas their " moral support ? " I asked this of someone 
in London, and his reply was that the Bechuanas were 
better without it. 

My wife told you about the powder. That, of course, is 
not the main question. The main question is the open 
breach of Convention by both Transvaal and English 
Governments in the present state of things in Bechuanaland. 



264 JOHN MACKENZIE 

As a matter of fact and law, all powder sales in South 
Africa are transacted after getting permits from government 
officials. These permits are refused to black men, and to 
traders living among them. These permits are granted to 
Boers, and to traders living among them. This is not 
referred to in the Pretoria Convention. Without breach of 
it powder might be freely sold. 

It was specifically referred to in the Sand River Convention 
— no powder was to be sold to blacks, and no treaty was to 
be made with them by England. By the way, have you ever 
seen that delightful document ? It would raise your 
opinion of your native land to peruse it. Its pro- 
visions as to powder were relaxed by Colonial and Trans- 
vaal Governments, that is to say, practically. Natal has 
always professed to be strict as to the sale of guns, 
etc. 

In Bechuanaland, so strictly is powder law now observed, 
that the wild beasts are fast gaining ground upon the 
people ; they had come back quite near to Kuruinan before 
I left. 

I have seen Mr Arnold Thomas and talked over the 
matter. Don't know yet what they will do. But I feel sure 
in my own mind that good will come out of the agitation. 
Mr Thomas said something as to the advisability of having 
the matter before the Congregational Union, at its meeting 
here. I mention this as being his thought, that you may 
consider it. 

Trusting that the blessing of those who are ready to 
perish may find you out and be yours, — I am, ever yours 
sincerely, 

John Mackenzie. 

But it was in London of course that this battle 
must be lost or won. There were three directions 
in which he looked for help — the press, the philan- 
thropic societies, and such members of Parliament 
as he could at once reach and influence. He early 
found a most intelligent and hard-working friend 
in the late Mr F. W. Chesson, who was at that 
time Secretary of the Aborigines Protection Society 
With his help a " South African Committee " was 
formed which included some very strong men, and 



AS POLITICAL EDUCATOR 265 

that committee proved to be a powerful instrument 
both for educating the public mind and moving the 
will of the Government. The Lord Mayor, Sir 
R. N. Fowler, M.P., was on the committee, and 
speedily called a public meeting at the Mansion 
House to consider the affairs of South Africa. 

In his attempts to use the press, Mackenzie 
employed two methods. One was to convince, by 
means of personal interviews, the editors of several 
of the most influential journals ; the second was to 
contribute articles of his own to the columns of 
certain others. His first article was accepted by 
the Scotsman on October 10, 1882. Thereafter he 
wrote very frequently for that paper as well as for 
the Leeds Mercury. Mr Talbot Baines of the Mercury 
became one of his staunchest and most encouraging 
friends. Among the London papers his attention 
was early directed to the Pall Mall Gazette^ which 
at that time was edited by Mr John Morley. We 
have seen in his letter to Dr Dale how deeply he 
resented the tone in which that paper discussed 
South African affairs. It frankly, almost cynically, 
advocated the "letting go" policy. In this case, 
the only plan seemed to be to convert the editor, 
and this could only be done by means of a personal 
acquaintance. Mr Morley won Mackenzie's heart 
with his kindness, his perfect sincerity, his willingness 
to listen to the other side, his judicial fairness. For 
a time it looked as if Mr Morley might be gained ; 
but to the defender of Britain's South African Empire 
there came the great disappointment of seeing Mr 
Morley at a later date stand up in the House un- 
converted, and hostile still to the new policy which 
was then beginning to win the attention of the 
Government. 

The following letter to his eldest son gives an 
account of his effort to convince Mr Courtney, one 



266 JOHN MACKENZIE 

of the most determined advocates then and since of 
the policy of abandoning South Africa. 

II Queen's Square, 
Bloomsbury, idth Nov. 1882. 

Dear Willie, — I have just come back from Mr John 
Morley's house, where I spent the night. ... I went between 
3 and 4 p.m. It was a visit of great pleasure to me. All 
the people were nice ; but the Morleys are all very nice. I 
hope I shall like Courtney on ahead. I can't say I do so 
just now ; but he is a very fine fellow, says Mr Morley, and 
I believe it is so. 

Had a long talk with Morley before dinner. I think 
he is more interested in " my view," or " scheme," as he 
called it. He said some warm things in its praise when 
summarizing on more than one occasion. I judged of his 
feelings and position very much by the intense interest he 
showed in Courtney's face as I was talking to him after the 
ladies left the room. I could see, or fancied so, that Morley 
wished me to get on well with Courtney, and watched the 
effect of every " point " I made. 

Dear Willie, Courtney made " no bones " about admitting 
right off, that those who think with him want to " clear out " 
from South Africa entirely, and openly said he believed the 
natives would "go as the Choctaws had done," after the 
English Government had left Africa. This is exactly what 
Lord Kimberley said on my second interview with him. He 
(Courtney) expressed an opinion that this entirely " letting 
alone" would soon be announced publicly. His position 
argumentatively is this : We never could govern South Africa 
in the past. We had as fine men trying as any we are likely 
to have now or in the future. The lowering of the suffrage 
in this country has rendered all government more difficult 
— especially of such outlying governments — the pressure of 
work being so great. "We can't do it — it's impossible, and 
by and by the suffrage will be still more widened." I joined 
issue as to the African fact that fair effort had been given to 
the work there. The enquiry was a historical one, and was 
ascertainable with niceness. Gladstone, I said, was on my 
side here, and publicly admitted they had had no South 
African policy — only " staving off the evil day." " I daresay, 
like one of his speeches." " And then, sir," I said, " your 



AS POLITICAL EDUCATOR 267 

opinion supposes that we cannot go beyond those who 
preceded us in attainment ; and that we cannot learn from 
history and from their mistakes." At Morley's suggestion I 
then briefly sketched my plan. " Couldn't possibly do it 
with our changed constitution or mode of — I forget exact 
expression — doing public business. You see, a few years 
ago we had the aristocratic class doing that work, according 
to their light, and finding it to be, as they thought, their 
vocation. All that is now changed — our democracy is an 
entirely different thing." 

Well ! there were several answers that suggested them- 
selves here. The one I gave, I think, was that to press that 
ai'gument was to show that unless it cleared its way and got 
more time to do its real work the English Government 
would be effete altogether, even for insular work ; that my 
scheme of sending a Department of Downing Street, as it 
were, to South Africa, was in the nature of improving that 
mode of procedure. I afterwards spoke very seriously to 
Morley about this view as a complete giving up of the 
cohering English Empire, and the abnegating, as I thought 
in an unworthy way, of duties and responsibilities which 
Providence had imposed on England : and that the character 
of our people must suffer, if they came under the active 
power of such motives ; they would shrink into something 
very little indeed. " I grant yours is far the nobler position 
and begets more worthy and chivalrous feelings," was his 
reply. 

But that about the Choctaws, and the way it was put, 
went to my heart like a knell. At Morley's instigation I 
told how the Bechuanas had improved — irrigation, plough- 
ing, etc. " Quite surprising in such a short time ; I am 
much interested," said Morley. But Courtney was silent. 
Evidently, here, Morley was helping me in a kind way. Mr 
Morley is not satisfied that my scheme has been fairly 
understood by Mr Courtney. Suggested that I should have 
another interview with him — he would arrange it. I said I 
thought there was little hope, he had made up his mind. I 
then reminded him of my social disqualifications — nobody, 
etc., yet a missionary. He insisted on it, however ; only 
perhaps Mr Courtney himself will be of my opinion, 
and not wish any more of it — though, even if that were 
the case, I should think he would find it hard to deny his 
friend. 



268 JOHN MACKENZIE 

We breakfasted early this morning — sitting down at table 
at a quarter to 8 o'clock. Mr Morley's work demanded this. 
Therefore he goes early to bed. Spoke about meeting again 
— arranged about my writing a magazine article — and so 
parted. With love. J. M. 

In a few days the matter was up in the House of 
Commons and Mr Evelyn Ashley, who was then 
Under Secretary for the Colonies, asserted that the 
Government could and would do nothing. Next day 
he was visited at the Colonial Office by the terribly 
earnest missionary, who had begun to haunt that home 
of Imperial officers with an untiring persistence. The 
following letter to his second son describes that visit 
and reveals something of his method and the secret of 
his success : — 

London Missionary Society, 

Blomfield Street, London Wall, E.G., 

1st Dec. 1882. 

Dear Johnnie, — I got your nice letter. I want to jot 
down the events of last night and to-day. 

Mr Ashley gave a flat denial to the suggestion that 
more should be done by the Government than had been 
done. " They were not to do more." Well, I have 
seen Mr Ashley and I wish to jot down about it while it 
is fresh. 

He was very dry indeed when I went in. Did not say, 
sit down. " Well, Sir, anything fresh — more than we know ? " 
" No, nothing fresh, except that I saw from your answer last 
night you were not aware that those fellows were now acting 
for themselves, without any chiefs intervening." "We have 
not heard that. But sit down — let us talk about it. What 
I do say heartily and earnestly is, Mr Mackenzie, that I wish 
all your meetings and resolutions, etc., would go further, and 
tell us what are we to do. I would forbid the right of 
criticism, for my part, except when accompanied by practical 
suggestion." " Well, Sir, the meetings which I attended 
always gave practical suggestions. In the first place, it was 
suggested that the Convention should be more stringently 
applied, since it became known that a number of these men 



AS POLITICAL EDUCATOR 269 

were in Bechuanaland ; the Directors suggest that Her 
Majesty's Government and the Cape Colony should combine 
to establish order there. These are practical suggestions." 
•" But do you mean that we should march an army thro' 
the Transvaal for the purpose ? " " No — nothing so extreme ; 
something much more practical. The Cape Colony naturally 
dislikes taking the lead. That is the position of this Govern- 
ment. But if Her Majesty's Government would take the 
lead in co-operation with the Cape Colony, they might enlist 
men at the Fields, or find the Border Police already on the 
Border enough for their purpose." He was silent — appar- 
ently interested. " I don't underrate the difficulties of the 
Government. I wish, as far as local knowledge goes, to 
assist as far as I can. In this country I have never ' pitched 
into ' the Transvaal at any public meeting, but have always 
taken the utmost care as to what I said. But when I am put 
up before a public meeting and asked to tell the people 
about Bechuanaland, I must say something. In a small 
way, you can see that I have my difficulty too." " Oh, yes, 
I can see that. Well, I should like you to read the Blue- 
book which will be out to-morrow. Come again and have 
a talk after you have done so. Tell me then what you think 
we ought to do there." 

Excuse haste in ending. Ladies' meeting on, 

J. M. 

A letter to his wife, dated December 5 th, gives still 
another further glimpse into the alertness with which 
he seized every opportunity and used every instru- 
ment that seemed available. 

12 Queen Square, 
Slk Dec. 1882. 

Dearest, — I got your welcome letter this morning enclos- 
ing William Walker's. . . . 

I can't get at my article. I have written two for Christian 
World and Independent, which they may or may not accept 
of. There is given in the Blue-book a very striking article 
from the Cape Volksblad strongly upbraiding the Transvaal 
Boers with their criminality and foolishness in reference to 
the Western Border. " Don't you see that you are alienat- 
ing from yourselves the respect of the very people in England 



2;o JOHN MACKENZIE 

who may be said to have given to you your self-government ? 
They insisted upon your getting your rights. Depend on it, 
they will insist with equal force on the natives getting theirs." 
It is a great gratification to me to see this leader. It estab- 
lishes my position with Lord Kimberley as to the two classes 
of Boers. There has been much done since we reached Cape 
Town. The Blue-book shows that. Sir Hercules Robin- 
son's despatches are very strong. It was he who sent 
home the leader from Cape paper for Lord Kimberley's 
information. The Transvaal stands discredited in this latest 
Blue-book. 

But I don't want the Boers interfered with in the Trans- 
vaal. Let them govern themselves, if only we could get 
some kind of hopeful government for Bechuanaland. 

Mr Morley yesterday enclosed a letter from Mr Froude 
stating his opinions, and saying that, such being his 
opinions, I may not think it worth while to call, but if 
I do call, he assures me it will give him much pleasure 
to go over the matter with me. I shall call to-morrow. 
In the meantime, for the fun of the thing, as Mr Morley 
asked me to return F.'s letter, I have done so with the 
" other side " as to every statement which he makes, in short 
compass. 

All the resolutions from Birmingham, Bristol, etc., are 
given in this Blue-book. There is no shutting our eye to 
the fact that much has been done. I sometimes think a 
more rabid and unscrupulous man might have lashed 
up public opinion sooner — telling all the atrocities, etc.; 
but such spasms do little good ; at any rate, I could not 
do it. People ought to be convinced, so as that they 
can continue to uphold their views to-morrow and the day 
after. 

I sent a copy of pamphlet to Sir Bartle Frere. Letter from 
Miss Frere in a day or two to say that her father would be 
very glad to see me at lunch some Saturday, and would 
Saturday next suit? So I have written to say I shall be 
most happy, etc. Lord Carnarvon writes from some Castle 
in Wales to say he has perused with much interest, etc. 
An acknowledgment also from Lord Shaftesbury — Ashley's 
father — and he says he will give it his "early attention." 
However, I must go at this article now. And I am going 
down to the Mission-House to-day to stir them up about the 
circulation of the pamphlet. 



AS POLITICAL EDUCATOR 271 

When am I coming home ? Don't know. Can't say. 
Wish I were there. Feel strongly inclined to put in a 
sort of " To be continued " ; but have not got to that 
stage yet. 

Very much love to you and to all. J. M. 

The Christmas of 1882 Mackenzie spent with his 
family at Portobello, and worked from there for the 
first few weeks of the New Year. He maintained his 
battle with unrelaxing courage. Not without some 
sickness of heart indeed ; for he could not learn 
to look with inward indifference upon the policy of 
those who were most actively opposed to him. 
" However," he says in one letter to his wife, " I am 
tried somewhat to-day, and the selfish worldliness of 
the other side — the ' For Ourselves ' style of the 
thing — is saddening." It always seemed to him 
that the policy of withdrawal from South Africa was 
dictated, partly by a certain pessimism regarding the 
continued power of Great Britain to carry its enormous 
load of Imperial responsibility, and partly by a certain 
' doctrinaire ' attitude of mind which applied the abstract 
theory of national freedom to the Dutch in South 
Africa without a careful scrutiny of the facts concern- 
ing the rights of other races, black and white, in the 
states, colonies, and dependencies of that region. 
Africa had cost a great deal and paid back little ; 
therefore let Africa go — that cry he met. The Dutch 
wanted to be free, therefore give them their freedom, 
more of it, if they want more — that cry also he 
heard. Great Britain had enough to do elsewhere, 
and ought in any case to confine her attention to 
her own home interests, which must be neglected 
by the bestowal of so much time upon the rest 
of the world — even that cry also met him. And 
Mackenzie, who had spent twenty years of brooding 
in South Africa upon the might of the British Empire, 
the high integrity of her officers, the brilliant genius 



272 JOHN MACKENZIE 

for administration displayed by them in India and 
elsewhere, who had worked out a broad plan by 
which South Africa might without war and with a 
minimum of Imperial expenditure be built up into a 
great Commonwealth or Dominion, faced these cries 
with that mingled courage and grief which comes, not 
from shallow optimism, but from a hard-won faith, to 
the defence of a great cause. 

About the end of January he received a letter from 
Mankoroane, the chief at Taungs, in which the latter 
stated the grievous condition into which he and his 
tribe were being brought by the inroads of the Boers, 
and pleading with Mackenzie most piteously for his 
intercession. 

Speak for me to the English people and to the ■ Govern- 
ment of the Queen. So far as I know I am suffering all this 
because I said, "I belong to the Queen." It is well known 
that, during the war between the English and the Boers, I 
received and protected the Queen's people who had fled 
from the Transvaal. My Teacher, all my confidence is 
still in the Queen's Government. Plead for me ! Help 
me ! If the Government does not help me, I am de- 
stroyed. ... If they delay to think of me I shall have 
passed away. 

Mackenzie at once communicated the contents of 
this letter to the Earl of Derby who had just suc- 
ceeded Lord Kimberley as Secretary of State for the 
Colonies. He also proceeded to write a pamphlet, 
entitled " Bechuanaland, The Transvaal, and England," 
to which he appended the letter from Mankoroane. 
In this pamphlet he described the situation from the 
point of view of Bechuanaland. He first sketched 
what England had done for the natives religiously and 
educationally, and stated some of the results in their 
improved social position ; then he described the active 
relations in which England stood to Bechuanaland 



AS POLITICAL EDUCATOR 273 

from 1878 to 1 8 8 I . When England deserted them the 
chiefs were left powerless, their tribes disorganised and 
left to the tender mercies of land-agents and secretaries, 
and Boer " freebooters," Lastly, an account was given 
very frankly and yet not passionately, and without 
invective, of the part which the Transvaal was then 
playing in Bechuanaland. Their conduct was con- 
trasted with that of the Cape Colony and the Orange 
Free State. 

It is now for the English public and for English legis- 
lators to compare their former ideas of the Boers, as men 
who were nobly longing for freedom, with the careful terms 
of the Pretoria Convention as to the protection of the natives, 
with the advice and warning of the Royal Commissioner at 
Pretoria, 1881, given through its President, and with the 
disgraceful wars and raids in Bechuanaland which have pre- 
vailed for more than a year. 

In the month of February Mackenzie began to draw 
encouragement from the attitude of Lord Derby. 
He writes on February 23 rd to his eldest 
son : — 

Did you notice Derby's speech? Hopeful between the 
lines. Protection is not scouted, as Kimberley scouted it. 

He also felt himself surer now in expounding and 
defending his own policy. The natural hesitancy and 
even diffidence which he felt when he first began this 
work were giving way under the experience of his 
success in persuading others to a reasonable confidence 
in his ideas. In the same letter he says, 

I am certain of my ground now, I mean the policy I 
propose. I have fought it out with some tough customers 
here ; and last Saturday night witnessed my first conversion, 
quite a startling one too. 

On April 27th, 1883, Mackenzie celebrated his 
silver wedding by attending that of his eldest son 

s 



274 JOHN MACKENZIE 

in Upperby Parish Church, near Carlisle. In a 
letter written next day to his new daughter, with a 
playfulness and a depth of feeling which he knew so 
well how to mingle, he pretended that she had neither 
seen nor appreciated the various wedding scenes, and 
proceeded to describe them to her. He recounted a 
few characteristic words which he had uttered at the 
breakfast, which, as being autobiographical, have a 
place here. 

Do you know what I said when thanking them for drinking 
my health ? It was this : That my son and daughter-in-law 
would work out their own day's work as everyone should, 
according to their own ability ; but that, as far as happiness 
was concerned, I could not wish for them greater or truer 
than by praying that their conjugal life might be as 
happy as my own had been for twenty-five years. This 
means that you may do more, fill higher places, and so 
on, but that I cannot conceive of your being more to one 
another 

In May 1883 Mackenzie had the satisfaction of 
addressing the British public through the pages of 
the Nineteenth Century. His article was entitled 
*' England and South Africa," and it extended to 
thirty-one pages. It was divided into five sections, 
in which a rapid and concise account was given of 
the leading historical facts and the main political 
features of South African history since the purchase 
of Cape Colony from Holland in the beginning of 
the last century. 

Section I. discussed " England and the Cape Colony ; 
Europeans." The social and educational progress of the 
colonists was described, and it was shown that : " Found in 
degrading bondage to a commercial company, from whose 
authority part of the population were in actual rebellion, the 
European inhabitants of the Cape Colony have enjoyed a 
period of increasing prosperity under the government of 
England." Section II. was on " England and the Cape 



AS POLITICAL EDUCATOR 275 

Colony; Natives." It sought to bring out "the two-fold 
aspect of the question, the effect of our policy on the 
natives themselves, and the reflex result on the European 
colonists." The facts connected with serfdom, slavery, and 
emancipation, were recounted. Nowhere have more bene- 
ficial results followed to both masters and slaves from 
emancipation than in South Africa. Even from the point 
of view of deliverance from the practice of slavery with 
the wrongs and wars it would engender, the blessings 
conferred on the European population in South Africa by 
their connection with England have fully equalled those 
conferred by that power on the native African races. 
Section III. passed to "Our Border Policy in South 
Africa." The principal lesson of this section was that 
there had been no border policy. Uncertainty and 
vacillation, rather than a mastery of the subject, char- 
acterized the attitude and action of Britain throughout the 
century. With great force this conclusion was driven home 
by instance after instance, ending with the ever shameful 
treatment of the Bechuanaland chiefs and their tribes. 
"Thus a people begs for our help in the establishment 
of good government; they agree to submit to us, and 
to pay the necessary taxes. We turn a deaf ear to them, 
and see them shot down by irresponsible filibusters, whose 
base of operation is a country of which we have the 
sovereignty ! " In Section IV., " Northward," the irre- 
sistible movement of Europeans was set forth. "There 
are reasons for it deeper than political ones; it is a 
movement which can be counted on and legislated for, 
but not arrested. In America those who move westward 
never think of severing their connection with the East ; 
and if they did think of it, the United States Govern- 
ment would insist that there should be no such separation. 
England unfortunately has never recognized this northern 
movement as a fact in South African history." This 
movement is then sketched to show on the one hand how 
steady it has been, and how our zigzag ways of dealing 
with South African affairs led to the dangers, disasters, 
irritations and disgraces, of that which should have been 
controlled by the Central Power from first to last. 

Thus the writer was brought to his last Section V. " The 
Lessons of the Past ; Our Future South African Policy." The 



276 JOHN MACKENZIE 

policy is based on the assumption that " England will not 
retire from South Africa, but will retain her position as the 
Central or Supreme Power having, as hitherto, the native 
policy in her own hands." (i) The first step would be the 
selection of one head ... we may call him Governor- 
General. The Governor of the Cape Colony would exercise 
that office and nothing more, and so in the case of Natal. 
(2) The Cape Colony would be relieved of its burdensome 
task in managing such outlying territories as Basutoland, 
Transkei, Griqualand East, etc. The Colony would con- 
tribute its quota towards defraying the expense of upholding 
the peace of its borders. It would have enough to do with 
a large native population within its borders. Responsible 
government would then have a fair trial at the Cape, which it 
has not had hitherto. The native territories would be 
placed under administrators, each in direct correspondence 
with the Governor-General and magistrates, assisted in certain 
cases by native chiefs as assessors. Under this provisional 
or territorial government, taxes would be raised to defray 
local expenditures, and territorial law would be adminis- 
tered. Each territory would be expected to pay its own way 
and to contribute towards the central government. . . . 
The native territories would pass through this stage to the 
higher grade of Colonial Government, which would be 
reached when Education had made some progress and the 
people had become familiar with civilized procedure as 
to deeds, titles, etc. Under territorial law, for their pro- 
tection, natives would not be allowed to sell land ; which 
would inflict no wrong, inasmuch as that is their tribal law 
already. 

Of course this plan meant annexation. Any satisfactory 
solution of South African difficulties must take into account 
the northward movement of Europeans. This movement 
is itself the annexing or aggressive force ; our scheme seeks 
to control it ; and its tendency would, on the whole, be to 
curb rather than to stimulate forward tendencies. The 
present proposal introduces no change in our relations to 
any colony or state in South Africa. They would deal with 
a Governor-General of South Africa instead of with a High 
Commissioner, who was also a local governor. In such a 
scheme as that now sketched, there would be the true 
nucleus of a United South Africa. Gradually there would 



AS POLITICAL EDUCATOR 277 

grow a general council or parliament representing all colonies 
and states, and assisting the Governor-General in the manage- 
ment of the general affairs of the country. At present we 
have mere disjecta membra in the South African body 
politic, the head being one of the disjoined parts. He 
concluded with the confident beHef that when England 
establishes some such government as that which we have 
here imperfectly sketched, she will at length have solved the 
problem of governing Europeans and Africans in mutual 
helpfulness. 

Before the appearance of this article, and in refer- 
ence to it, Mackenzie M^rote a letter to Dr Dale from 
v^^hich the follow^ing extracts may be made. 

12 Queen Square, Bloomsbury, 
London, iZth March 1883. 

My Dear Dr Dale, — My article suggests the doing 
with the right hand what England has done left-handedly 
and with much irritation in the past. 

I believe you have the choice of adopting some such 
general line of South African policy ! or leave the country 
(practically) and see one race-war after another till the blacks 
are — in the language of one of your leading men of to-day — 
" where the Choctaw Indians are." 

I have met with great personal kindness from Mr John 
Morley, to whom indeed I ovre the introduction to Mr 
Knowles of the Nineteenth Century. But his late speech and 
his recent articles are to me very sad. They mean the total 
relinquishment of duties and responsibilities in South Africa. 
They mean nothing else. If we were deciding whether or 
not we should go there, they would be in place. I consider 
there is a deadly shrinking from fact and duty and obligation, 
which, as a factor in politics, does not augur well for the 
prosperity of the country in which such views come to the 
front. " For ourselves " would seem to be the motto of 
this kind of writing and speaking. But who are " our- 
selves " ? 

" I know we signed something but we never meant to 
keep to it, and we won't either," said a gentleman to me, when 



278 JOHN MACKENZIE 

speaking of the Pretoria Convention. " Tiien," I said, 
" you will forgive me for saying it ; but you are a bad 
lot." 

Only one man of all I have met with has spoken out such 
unmitigated falseness as that. It is however, at the bottom 
of the whole attitude of the government at present. I am 
no partizan. 



J 



CHAPTER XI 

ENGLAND THE TRANSVAAL DELEGATES AND THE 

LONDON CONVENTION (1883, 1 884) 

Much of the summer of 1883 was spent by Mac- 
kenzie in Scotland. In the earlier months he was 
engaged in " deputation work " on behalf of the 
London Missionary Society, which took him through 
part of Aberdeenshire. He was also busy with the 
production of his little book entitled " Day-Dawn in 
Dark Places " which the Directors of the Society 
had asked him to prepare for them. It was to be 
used as their annual gift-book to Sunday School 
children for the year 1884. The book was an 
account of his missionary life and work in South 
Africa, and hence in part consisted in an adaptation 
of his earlier volume " Ten Years North of the Orange 
River." It dealt also with those later experiences in 
Shoshong and Kuruman which as yet lay buried in 
the archives of the London Missionary Society. The 
little book was published by Cassell and Co., and 
had a large circulation, which that enterprising 
firm extended to America. For the holiday 
month of August 1883, Mackenzie took a cottage 
at Hillside, near Montrose, where once more he was 
able to see all his children gathered together at one 
time. 

But in September Mackenzie was in London 
again, preparing for the fiercest of the fight. Ominous 
signs of a hard struggle were in the air. It had be- 
come known in June that the Transvaal Government 

wished to send a deputation to England to deal at 

279 



28o JOHN MACKENZIE 

close quarters with Her Majesty's Government. Lord 
Derby very readily consented to receive them, but 
\yarned them that the Conference could not take place 
before the end of October. In the month of Sep- 
tember, therefore, Mackenzie found himself in at 
once a more strenuous contest and a better position 
to carry it on. The visit of the deputation was about 
to hasten the decision of the British Government 
and to make it take a final step — into Bechuanaland 
to remain there, or out of it for ever ! But just 
because the whole matter was about to be decided the 
voice of the best-informed man in London, perhaps 
anywhere, on this specific subject acquired a public 
authority. 

The delegates were sent by the Transvaal Govern- 
ment to Europe, in the first place, to raise a loan. The 
fact is that the wheels of State were beginning to 
grind heavily, and the drivers saw themselves sinking 
into that condition of bankruptcy which had helped to 
make annexation in 1877 seem inevitable, and which 
would have made history, sooner or later, repeat itself, 
had not the discovery of the Witwaters Rand gold- 
fields transformed the economic situation. In relation 
to Great Britain the delegates had another plan. They 
determined to urge that the Pretoria Convention had 
failed, and that a return must be made to the Sand 
River Convention of 1852 ! In particular, they were 
prepared to make four demands upon Great Britain. 
First, that the name " South African Republic " should 
be recognised ; second, that part of the debt to Great 
Britain, over ;£^2 50,ooo, should be cancelled; third, 
that the system of British control of the treatment 
of natives within and without the Transvaal, of which 
Mr Gladstone had prophesied so triumphantly, should 
be abolished ; and fourth, that the Western boundary 
of the Republic should be carried so far west as to 
include all Bechuanaland within its limits. 



THE LONDON CONVENTION 281 

Mackenzie was alarmed by these proposals. With 
his intimate knowledge of Boer feelings and ambitions, 
with his estimate of the recently formed Afrikander 
Bond and its future influence on South African history, 
with his convictions about the character of the leaders 
of the Transvaal, he saw that the real substantial ques- 
tion now actually raised was that of the paramount 
power in South Africa. He stood almost alone in this 
belief at first. And to the end he failed fully to con- 
vince Lord Derby, or even Sir Hercules Robinson, 
who was happily in London to take part in the con- 
ference. But the subsequent history of Transvaal 
ambitions has proved that he was right. His estimate 
of the situation is most vigorously expressed in a letter 
to Dr Dale. 

PORTOBELLO, 22 Sept. 1 883. 

Dear Dr Dale, — I hope you have been able to follow 
recent South African events, especially those connected with 
the Cape Colony. The extreme anti-English party in the 
Cape Parliament has been shown to be a small one. There 
was danger at one time that their hands would have been 
strengthened by the extreme Hammer and Tongs English 
party at the Cape ; but this did not happen. The Scanlen 
Government is not a strong one ; but on the Basutoland 
question it actually secured votes from those adverse to its 
general policy. 

There would have been universal approval of the Basuto- 
land policy of Mr Scanlen's Government, if anything like 
confidence had been felt as to the intentions of the English 
Government. Could her promise be trusted to ? How much 
must be discounted from what she promised ; or did she 
promise anything? The result of the Basutoland arrange- 
ment is beginning to be felt in that country, and good will 
appear as confidence is restored to men's minds by the action 
of England. 

Now the Transvaal envoys are on their way to this country. 
What is the question which they come to decide ? Whether 
the Transvaal is or is not to be left without restraint, and if 
thus left, to become the paramount South African State. It 



282 JOHN MACKENZIE 

is not a question of " freedom," as that word is usually under- 
stood ; much less is it a question of self-government. It is a 
question of paramountcy. Is it to be retained by England, 
with and for the Cape Colony and the more civilized South 
African communities, or is it to be handed to the Transvaal ? 
The Cape Colony appears to have awoke to the imminence 
of the peril in which she stands of being shut out from the 
trade of the interior, and shut out from the great possibilities 
connected with having a voice in the settlement of the 
immense unoccupied and beautiful countries to the north. 
But the attitude of England is surely too coldly supine. The 
men who would be glad to see England out of South Africa 
altogether are having it all their own way. At least it would 
seem so. An intelligent German, well acquainted with South 
Africa, recently said to a friend of mine, "It is deplorable 
how England fritters away her influence for good in South 
Africa." 

At such a juncture as this the hands of the government 
ought to be strengthened in connection with the Pretoria 
Convention. What has failed ? Where is the mistake ? 
Where is the Transvaal wronged ? South African affairs 
need a head ; and that head is the English Government in 
the meantime — along with and, perhaps, to be succeeded by, 
the government of the Cape. Modify the Convention if 
you like by removing internal interference in Transvaal (I 
say this reluctlantly, but to gain a point) — if you are to 
modify, do it there ; but as to setting the Transvaal free and 
irresponsible, and undefined as to its borders, it would be a 
moral wrong for England to do it. And history would point 
to the action as an illustration of cold-blooded and short- 
sighted selfishness. 

Now I want to ask your advice as to what ought 
to be done in this most important matter? The Cape 
Colony has given up Basutoland — how can it take over 
Bechuanaland ? It could only do so with the understand- 
ing that England assisted the colony with Bechuanaland as 
with Basutoland. 

The Missionary Society lately addressed a letter to Lord 
Derby on this aspect of the question. His reply was, that 
Her Majesty's Government were waiting in this matter the 
action of the Cape Government. 

My position is that with a Viceroy (as the Spectator called 
the official whom it also recommends for South Africa) and 



THE LONDON CONVENTION 283 

a central government, South Africa need never cost England 
anything in money or men — except some of her best sons as 
administrators and civil servants. 

Now, before I have done, just consider the issues that are 
at stake just now. Who is to be supreme in South Africa ? 
What sort of views as to native races are to have power in 
the future? With reference to the London Missionary 
Society, is it to expect better treatment at the hands of the 
Transvaal authorities than the French missionaries met with 
from President Burgers, when they were detained as prisoners 
and then sent back to Basutoland, on the occasion of their 
desiring to pass through the Transvaal to reach the tribes 
beyond ? What are we to make of our useful Bechuana 
Mission and native ministers and the possibilities of our 
northward work, if law and justice retreat from the country, 
and might is left to assert itself as right ? And but for the 
attention which Bechuanaland has received in England — 
feeble and uncertain as that has been — where would our 
Mission have been ? Ask the ruins at Kolobeng, at Matebe, 
and at Moilwe's — the stations destroyed by the Boers, shortly 
after the signing of the Sand River Convention. England is 
surely interested in the right of way to the interior of South 
Africa, so that peaceful men, whether missionaries or traders, 
or scientific explorers, should have a free right of way, as 
they have had from the native chiefs. 

Now, if you have followed me thus far, I think you will 
agree that there is a case for the attention of those who are 
better known than I am. Please to think over the matter, 
and suggest something practical and something worthy of the 
greatness of the question. 

I remember in May last you seemed to have mastered 

this question. I hope it has not been buried under later and 

more absorbing questions. But if it has been covered, it is 

still there in your mind. I look to you for help to do good 

in a far-reaching way, and in a work which I think will abide. 

I shall be glad to hear from you. — Believe me to be, ever 

yours sincerely, t , , 

^ •'' John Mackenzie. 

Mackenzie had now found several most valuable 
allies in the London press. The editorship of the 
Pall Mall Gazette had passed from the hands of 
Mr Morley to those of Mr W. T. Stead, v^^ho proved 



284 JOHN MACKENZIE 

himself at that time a most vigorous and useful 
propagator of true Imperialism in South Africa. 
One of the papers which from the first showed a 
profound grasp of South African affairs, and which 
has maintained its first clear insight through all the 
tumult and confusion of intervening years, was the 
Spectator. Mackenzie had no direct relations with 
the Spectator beyond having met Mr R. H. Hutton 
and Mr Townsend, but was ever deeply grateful for 
its sympathy and its constancy. Both of these papers 
used their full power to prevent the political blunder, 
the moral disgrace, which the Government seemed 
not unwilling to perpetrate in South Africa. The 
columns of the Pall Mall were used by Mackenzie 
frequently, and a number of trenchant editorials 
appeared there from the pen of Mr Stead, with the 
result that people were thoroughly aroused to see 
that an important event in Great Britain's Imperial 
relations was about to occur. 

The delegates, soon after their arrival, committed 
the error of publishing boldly a statement of their 
claims, and supporting it with what professed to be a 
history of their relations to Bechuanaland. They 
found, to their astonishment, that opposition to their 
plans had been already unwittingly prepared by 
Mackenzie's long campaign since July 1882. They 
also found their curious " history " and their political 
claims confronted by the same man, with an accurate 
and moderate and unanswerable statement of the real 
history of Bechuanaland, and with a sound estimate 
of their real ambitions. They had friends, of course, 
such as Dr G. B. Clark and others, who had so long, 
so curiously, acted as champions of the Transvaal ; 
and these tried to create a public movement favouring 
Mr Kruger and his companions. They failed how- 
ever. Even the Lord Mayor of London, Sir R. N. 
Fowler, M.P., who was a member of the South African 



THE LONDON CONVENTION 285 

Committee, and a student at first hand of South 
African affairs, declined to invite them to a Mansion 
House banquet, when it was proposed to him to do 
so. Shortly after their arrival Mackenzie wrote a 
letter to Mr Stead, from which the following may- 
be taken : — 

It is commonly supposed it is " freedom " which the dear 
Dutchmen want. I'll tell you what it is. 

It is not self-government ; that they have had, and have. 
There has been no real interference by England with their 
internal affairs since the Convention. 

It is not independence (like the Free State). But, in 
order to meet them, this might be given them, and Mr 
Hudson removed from the Transvaal, and Bechuanaland 
administered by Cape Colony and England. 

But what they want is the supreme political position in 
South Africa, to be the empire State among its states, the 
highway into the interior, to have native policy of the Future, 
etc., etc., all in their hands. 

Now if England is out of the country, do let Cape Colony 
come to the front, and be in the front. Let civilization and 
intelligence get ahead (as to influence) of dull ignorance, 
prejudice and bounce. 

Why does not Dr Clark work for the independence of 
Cape Colony? That the frontier men of South Africa 
should be independent of the rest of the Europeans out 
there is what every true friend of South Africa would pro- 
test against. It is impertinent as to the Cape Colony and 
Natal that Englishmen in London should work for the Inde- 
pendence of the frontier men of our European population in 
South Africa. 

At the same time they would have been none the worse of 
the Mayor's wine. 

We need not here recount the story of that long 
Conference between Lord Derby, assisted by Sir 
Hercules Robinson, the High Commissioner for 
South African Affairs on the one hand, and these 
delegates of the Transvaal, President Kruger, the Rev. 
S. J. du Toit, and General N. J. Smith, on the other 



286 JOHN MACKENZIE 

hand. The conference was carried on almost ex- 
clusively in writing. The first pretension of the 
delegates that they were about to make a treaty 
with Great Britain was abruptly turned down by 
Derby, who defined the difference between a treaty 
and a convention. The convention was an agree- 
ment under which Her Majesty conferred upon 
certain people v/ho had been formerly her subjects 
the power of self-government, on certain conditions. 
With great ease the delegates found themselves 
receiving — handed over to them with the proverbial 
hauteur and uncalculating, and therefore ignorant, 
self-complacency attributed to the typical English- 
man — three of their four great boons. A large 
part of their debt was remitted ; the British control 
over the Transvaal's treatment of its native popula- 
tion — Mr Gladstone's prophetic dream notwithstand- 
ing — was withdrawn ; the Transvaal was formally 
recognised as " The South African Republic." There 
can be no doubt now that Lord Derby went too 
far, that in making the last two concessions he put 
actual and immeasurable power into the hands of 
what was, at heart, a hostile power, and that he gave 
the Transvaal an international standing. This inter- 
national standing was of course further confirmed and 
dignified, when to these he added yet another boon, 
that of making treaties, with only the right of veto 
reserved to the Queen. Mackenzie saw with deep 
sadness the gradual investment of the " Frontier 
Boers " with such power and prestige ; he saw the 
day of the Boer's hope dawning. For, as his letters 
have shown, he already knew that the deep design 
of Mr Kruger was to make the South African 
Republic the paramount power in South Africa. 
Very few were the men whom he could convince ox 
this as a living policy, and a living danger ; and, 
alas ! none of these was in the Colonial Office. 



I 



THE LONDON CONVENTION 287 

There remained the one greatest desire of the 
Transvaal heart, namely, the extension of their western 
border over Bechuanaland. What they said alike 
before, at, and after the London Conference shows 
how far they saw into the future. They knew that 
this alone would settle the question of paramountcy 
in South Africa. The other concessions would help 
them wonderfully towards the fulfilment of their 
racial dream ; but without this, those others might 
prove futile ; with this, they would certainly make 
the Transvaal supreme. It was the discussion of this 
matter, the fate of Bechuanaland, and in that the 
fate of the British Empire in South Africa, which 
prolonged the Conference from the beginning 
of November 1883 to the middle of February 
1884. 

A few men in Cape Colony and England had 
already begun to appreciate the far-reaching im- 
portance of this Boer movement westwards, such as 
Mr Cecil Rhodes and Sir Thomas Scanlen at the 
Cape, Mr W. E. Forster, Sir T. F. Burton, Earl Grey, 
Sir Bartle Frere and others at home. Mr Rhodes, 
indeed, proposed a motion in the Cape Parliament 
requesting the British Government " in the interests 
of the Colony to appoint a Resident with the Chief 
Mankoroane." This was mild enough surely ; but it 
was lost. The Africander Bond, whose rallying cry 
was " Africa for the Africanders," and whose member- 
ship included the leading Dutchmen in the Transvaal, 
Orange Free State, and Cape Colony, was now organised 
and its momentous history had begun. As an im- 
mediate result, the racial elements in the Cape Parlia- 
ment were being rapidly changed, and Mr Hofmeyr 
had opened his career as the Bond leader without 
whom no Cape politician might hope to gain or to 
hold for long the office of Prime Minister. So strong 
had the current already set in against British " inter- 



288 JOHN MACKENZIE 

ference," that a certain well-known member of the 
Cape Parliament — an Englishman — refused to present 
a petition which proposed to keep the trade route into 
the interior open, because the petition affirmed that 
England ought to be the paramount power north of 
Griqualand West ! 

It seemed at one time as if Mackenzie might have 
a direct and official position in the Conference. For 
Mankoroane, the chief whose territories lay nearest 
to Cape Colony, who had been very true to Great 
Britain and had suffered for his loyalty, and whose 
land was now being seized by inhabitants of the 
Transvaal, claimed the right to be present at the 
Conference. He began his journey and reached Cape 
Town, when he was informed that he should go no 
further. He then asked that Mackenzie be allowed 
to act as his official representative. This also Lord 
Derby refused, but he wrote to Mackenzie to say that 
all information which the latter might have regarding 
Mankoroane and his rights would be received and 
carefully considered in the course of the Conference. 
In this way Mackenzie was put in a position of actual, 
though unofficial, power. As the Conference was 
carried on almost entirely by the exchange of docu- 
ments and letters, and by private and personal inter- 
views, Mackenzie, to whom those avenues were thus 
fully opened, had a very real place in the Conference. 
His conversations with Sir Hercules Robinson, Sir 
Robert Herbert and others at the Colonial Office 
were very frequent. Every new proposal by the 
delegates, every argument which they made, every 
historical assertion which they risked, was submitted 
to Mackenzie for his criticism. He used his oppo- 
tunity, not merely to deal with the claims of the 
Transvaal, but, as these were successfully rebutted, 
with the new position in which the rebuttal of those 
claims put Great Britain. That Government, it was 



THE LONDON CONVENTION 289 

plain, must do much more than waive aside the pro- 
posals of the Transvaal ; it must say what was to be 
done with, and what was to become of, the native 
tribes whose territory was now being " eaten up " by 
the Boers. You do not dam back a flowing tide by 
drawing an imaginary line and forbidding its advances, 
nor would you stop the unrighteous and murderous 
annexation of Bechuanaland by Boers from the Trans- 
vaal, by drawing a line on maps in London and 
having it " ratified " at Pretoria. The only possible 
plan was British action instead of Transvaal action. 
The trade route could only be kept open through the 
actual occupation of the country by those for whom 
it was to be open. 

In the beginning of December Mackenzie sent in to 
Lord Derby a memorandum describing the kind of 
government which Great Britain could, and ought to, 
adopt in Bechuanaland. It was his old well-pondered 
system of territorial government, which had capti- 
vated Sir Bartle Frere, and convinced other wide- 
viewed men. To his great joy. Lord Derby confessed 
himself impressed by it. " A policy, such as you have 
indicated, would doubtless, if firmly and judiciously 
carried out, avert many difficulties and dangers." 
That marked a great advance upon the attitude which 
Lord Derby had himself taken less than a year before, 
when the same principles were submitted by Mackenzie 
for his consideration. Lord Derby made British 
action depend upon the action of the colonies and 
states of South Africa. It was his view that such a 
scheme could only be carried out by them. This 
visionary notion was characteristic of the British 
statesman's knowledge, and his theorising about 
South Africa. No one who knew South Africa could 
possibly consider it as possible that the colonies and 
states would combine, in those days, to carry out so 
broad a policy of native territorial government. For 

T 



290 JOHN MACKENZIE 

one thing, it would mean the complete transformation 
of the Boer spirit, and for another it would mean that 
rival states and colonies should at once unite on 
purely humanitarian grounds, upon a work which is 
the most difficult in South Africa. Mackenzie was 
much cheered by Derby's letter, notwithstanding this 
restriction. To his eldest son he writes of it as 
follows : — 

II Queen Square 
{Undated.) 

Dear Willie, — I got the enclosed last night before going 
to bed. It was good news. I caught myself singing when 
dressing this morning, which I have not felt inclined to do 
for some time. 

When you remember that I ask no new responsibility, and 
when you consider the attitude of the Cape Colony asking 
for what Lord Derby says he is inclined to grant if colonies 
and states agree to ask it, the thing is most gratifying. God 
grant that nothing go wrong — no ill-wind blow on this 
decidedly practical and masterful attitude of Lord Derby. 
It is personally very pleasing to me to get his commendation 
so far to my scheme. 

The Contemporary is to try and get some big people 
to endorse my view in the Review^ perhaps Sir H. Barkly 
and Sir B. Frere. 

Do pray earnestly that this tendency in the right direction 
may be strengthened till it become a policy. I have seen 
Mr Scanlen, and showed him the letter. He was pleased. 
It was new life to him. I told him he must look up my 
communication and see if he approved of it, in which case 
a great point would be gained. He is likely to do so. Sir 
H. Robinson does so. I read it to him in MS. 

Must stop to catch post. Love to all in Portobello and in 
Montrose. — Your affectionate father. 

J. M. 

Mackenzie did not confine his agitation during the 
Conference to the Colonial Office and communications 
to the newspapers. Knowing the value of public meet- 
ings and the effect upon a Government of resolutions ' 



I 



THE LONDON CONVENTION 291 

from important and representative gatherings all over 
the country, he continued this kind of work. The most 
important of all the gatherings was that held at the 
Mansion House, London, on Tuesday, November 27th, 
1883. The Egyptian Hall was full to overflowing, 
and the " platform " was most distinguished as well as 
numerous. It was held under the auspices of the 
South African Committee, whose secretary, Mr F. W. 
Chesson, put his whole heart and his great organising 
powers into the effort.^ The Lord Mayor (Sir R. N. 
Fowler) occupied the chair. The principal speeches 
were delivered by the Earl of Shaftesbury, Mr W. E. 
Forster, Rev. John Mackenzie, Sir Henry Barkly and 
Sir Thomas F. Buxton. Mr Forster's speech was long, 
but full of fire, and produced a very great effect. The 
speakers all dealt mainly with the following points : 
the commercial value of the Bechuanaland trade-route 
into the interior, which the Hon. R. Southey, former 
Lieutenant-Governor of Griqualand West, estimated at 
one million pounds sterling per annum ; the rights of 
the Bechuanaland tribes and the obligations of Great 
Britain towards them ; the policy of the Transvaal 
towards natives and the virtual slavery so long prac- 
tised in the Transvaal. Mackenzie's own speech was 
very well received. It produced such an effect on one 
great man that he (Lord Shaftesbury), in shaking 
hands with Mackenzie at the close of the meeting, 
said emphatically, " You have a great career before 
you ; I'm sure you have a great career before 
you." On the night of that meeting Mackenzie sat 
down and wrote the following letter to his eldest 
son, which throws much light upon his work at this 
time : — 

^ An important pamphlet was published by the Aborigines Protection 
Society (1884), entitled "The Bechuanas, the Cape Colony, and the 
Transvaal," which contained a good report of the speeches at the meet- 
ing, besides other documents of importance to the discussion. 



292 JOHN MACKENZIE 

II Queen Square, 
2'jth Nov. 1883. 

My Dear Willie, — I am addressing you to-night, as I 
feel it is indeed a long time since we interchanged thoughts. 
I have just come home from handing in MS. of my speech 
to the Times. Their reporter came up and asked if I would 
like to supply it, and saying how much space they could 
afford. I have sent much more than he said in the hope 
that, having it there cut and dried, he will let it go in and 
save himself trouble. 

Well, the meeting has been a marvellous success, to use 
the kind of expression which you hear on such subjects. I 
came far short of my own idea as to what a speech ought to 
be. Lord Shaftesbury was in his usual vein, and was, of 
course, very well received. Next came Mr Forster. You 
will read his speech. He gave it them hot on all sides. 
You can have no idea of the enthusiastic reception which he 
met with. I think this question has done good work for Mr 
Forster, as certainly he has done good work for it. You know 
what I mean. He has shown those points as a politician 
which English people dearly love — fearless rectitude and 
strong denunciation of mere shiftiness. The people were 
very kind and appreciative all through. I was quite as- 
tonished at the heartiness of the meeting. I was very 
careful in what I said. I did not have time, however, half 
to go over the ground which I had chalked out, as others 
had to come after me, and Forster took a frightfully long 
time. However, I said some of the things I wanted to say, 
but omitted how many ! I am assured the meeting was an 
unusually enthusiastic one — this from Londoners ! 

Sir Henry Barkly is a good speaker. It was opportune 
also that Hon. R. Southey, the first Lieutenant-Governor 
of Griqualand West, should have been there to say a few 
words. 

The Aberdeen Free Press is evidently in communication with 
Dr Clark, the Boer advocate — if, indeed, he is not writing 
for it. I was very glad and thankful for that leader in the 
Scotsman. I sent it to the Colonial Office. 

I had the impression that I had described my visit to Lord 
Derby ; but as your mother asks me about it in her last, I 
must have done it in my dreams only. 

I found Lord Derby and Sir Evelyn Ashley, with Sir 



THE LONDON CONVENTION 293 

Robert Herbert, the Permanent Secretary, in the large room 
— I suppose. Lord Derby's. They had just been glancing 
over my statement in behalf of Mankoroane. Lord Derby 
came forward and very courteously met me, etc. — But surely 
I must have written all this to some one. 

We were close upon an hour together. What did 
Mankoroane want ? The establishment of order and 
government in his country by England or failing that, 
by the Cape Colony. 

The map was referred to ; places, etc., pointed out. 

Ashley. But Mankoroane has not lost any of his good 
land, only his outlying hunting veldt. At least, I said so 
in the House of Commons, and no one contradicted me. 

I. I'm afraid your inference is not warranted. I'm afraid 
you could say a good many things about Bechuanaland and 
not be contradicted in the House of Commons. 

Derby (laughing). Very true. No doubt of that. 

I then explained what he had lost, and how the people 
had begun to live at their farms before this trouble, so that it 
was really their homes which had been broken up. 

Ashley. Why don't all these people unite — they are so 
numerous — they could soon settle the matter themselves ? 

I. Well I should be glad of a settlement, but, to say truth, 
I should not be glad to see people ranging themselves in an 
hostile attitude in South Africa — blacks, because they were 
blacks ; and whites, as whites. 

Derby. Very true. I agree with you — it would be a bad 
thing. How would you do this ? 

I then sketched how I thought the thing might be done. 
Increase (with the active sanction and consent of the Cape 
Colony) the Cape Border Police, and make that your force 
for all practical purposes in Bechuanaland. You must 
recognize that this is an old affair, and has been let alone. 
Claims to land held by white men might turn out to your 
Commissioner to be valid. In my opinion the Commissioner 
would not dirty his hands, or compromise himself by dealing 
with these men. All that has been done already by the 
Government. The highest morality compels me to say they 
ought all to be cleared out. But the past action of the 
Government compels me to make the above suggestion as 
the only one feasible. 

I should have European magistrates, under a Commissioner 
— but territorial as distinguished from colonial law, etc. I 



294 JOHN MACKENZIE 

did not go far into this. But I think I shall request a short 
talk on this very point about la?id\ it is so important, and my 
arrangement is so unlike everybody else's, or rather, nobody 
has anything to propose that is new. 

I took occasion to mention the fallacy of some of what I 
knew to be the Boer position — e.g.^ that if they got more 
ground they would be more peaceful, etc. 

You would see that by Sir Bartle Frere, in the Fall Mall. 
I asked Chesson about him and the meeting. " If you like 
to spoil it let him come," was the answer, " the Conservatives 
would cheer him, and the others hiss him." " If any hissed, 
and I had the slightest chance I should certainly stick up 
for him." " Yes, and spoil the meeting." When I found 
that no tickets had been sent to him, or his family, and all 
so deeply interested in the question, I sent some down to 
them, and Lady Frere was kind enough to send up an 
express, with a note of thanks. Sir Bartle was away in 
Nottinghamshire, and wrote a note to me which I got in the 
morning. Of course he did not know about the tickets, as 
he was away from home. Do you know, although I don't 
agree with what the Conservatives and he were doing, I do 
admire the man, and feel intensely sorry for the calamity 
which has come upon him after a life-time of devoted service 
to his country. It is his indomitable pluck which captivates 
me, and his really noble bearing in his present trying 
position. However, I did not mean to go into this. But 
Sir H, Barkly was there and spoke well ; Sir H. Robinson 
was quoted by Forster ; but poor Sir Bartle was nowhere. 
Mind you it is a warning — but not to governors only, I 
should think, but to those who send them ; for I thmk 
he was a good and loyal servant of the Conservative 
Government. 

Sir Fowell Buxton was very kind, enquiring where I was, 
etc. And what do you think ? The Lord Mayor has asked 
me to dine with him to-morrow week, to meet Mr Scanlen of 
the Cape Colony. Perhaps it will be all over before that 
time. 

We shall see ; but I should not be surprised if the meet- 
ing to-night does help the cause of eventual peace and good 
government in South Africa. I am sending this, via 
Portobello. 



THE LONDON CONVENTION 295 

Another important meeting was held in Edinburgh 
on January 31st, 1884. Mackenzie was the leading 
speaker and he was followed by the late Professor 
Henry Calderwood of Edinburgh University, the late 
Bishop Cotterill, Professor W. G. Blaikie, the bio- 
grapher of Livingstone, Mr John Gifford, the Rev. 
G. D. Cullen and others. Dr Calderwood described 
Mackenzie's speech as a " very clear, very calm, and 
very important statement." 

Mackenzie secured a place for his second Review 
article in the Contemporary of January 1884. It 
was entitled " England and South Africa," and ex- 
tended to twenty-six pages. It was divided into four 
sections, in the course of which the author tried to 
put into the hands of any intelligent Englishman 
all the material which he would need for mak- 
ing up his mind as to the claims made by the 
Transvaal and the responsibilities of Great Britain 
in Bechuanaland. 

Section I. introduced the discussion by asking why the 
Pretoria Convention had not succeeded. " The delegates 
have declared, since they came to England, that they are 
willing to observe towards the native tribes all that human 
or divine law would dictate. Under what category are we 
to reckon the Pretoria Convention, which the Transvaal has 
so flagrantly broken, and now wishes to rescind ? " Section 
II. "The Transvaal and Bechuanaland," traced the history 
of the relations between the Transvaal Boers and the tribes 
whose territories they now wished to obtain. The legal 
status of the blacks in the Transvaal is once more referred 
to, and the following telling comparison is made. " The 
Transvaal is a would-be Republic ; so are the United States 
of America. But the one may be justly said to be in some 
respects the opposite of the other. The inequality of men 
which the Transvaal people left the Cape Colony to secure — 
which they have written in their constitution in the Trans- 
vaal — is the very doctrine which has been removed from the 
laws of the American Republic, after sacrifices such as the 
world never heard of before. Americans have freed their 



296 JOHN MACKENZIE 

own Republican doctrines and carried them out. The 
Transvaal may come to do so, but in the meantime it has no 
right to be classed with governments which are its antithesis 
in doctrine and practice." A little later Mackenzie says, "I 
am exceedingly sorry that duty compels me to afifirm and to 
show that the historical researches published under the name 
of President Kruger are entirely unreliable." This he pro- 
ceeds to do at some length, tracing the history of Bechuana- 
land from 1812 to 1883. Section III. dealt with the 
" Political Condition of South Africa." Natal, the Free 
State, and the Cape Colony were briefly described, and then 
nearly five pages were given to one of those full and, it may 
be presumed accurate expositions of the relations, char- 
acteristics, and political problems of the native tribes of South 
Africa, which make Mackenzie's books and articles of first- 
rate importance to future students of that subject. Section 
IV. once more outlined his ever-developing plan for " The 
Government of South African Native Territories." After 
describing once more the need for a High Commissioner re- 
leased fromi the trammels of a local Governorship, he set 
forth successively his definition of a " Territory," the system 
of territorial law, the knotty problem of land tenure in a 
" Territory," the certainty that a territorial government 
could be paid by local taxes and upheld with a simple 
system of police. Finally, he dealt with the possibility of 
war in the carrying out of his scheme. His main points 
were that in a country like South Africa occasional dis- 
turbances may be looked for, but that a strong govern- 
ment would always prevent them from growing into " wars " ; 
that Great Britain cannot "run away from difficulties . . . 
from the shadows of her own mistakes in South Africa," but 
that she need never have on her hands in South Africa a 
disturbance which could not be quelled by means of South 
African Police. " If you have several native territories 
under your Government, you will always be able to find 
fighting men ready to your hand," when any tribe becomes 
rebellious. The article concluded with the following 
sentence : " There is annexation which is mere theft ; that 
we abhor. But in the successful government of South 
Africa there would be wise provision made for a process 
which in our scheme would be like growth, and not like theft. 
The land would not be stolen, and yet expansion would 
gradually take place. Black men would come southward, 



THE LONDON CONVENTION 297 

white men would go northward — under control and peace- 
fully. There is a responsibility in accepting such a scheme ; 
but there is a responsibility in rejecting it ; and there is the 
gravest responsibility in letting things alone. The present 
condition of South Africa is a disgrace to the character and 
the known administrative ability of England. And yet with 
intelligent treatment, South Africa, as it has been the most 
difficult, and is to-day the most unique, may also become the 
most interesting of English dependencies, and the crowning 
effort of her successful administration." 

The editor of the Contemporary Review secured 
letters from Sir H. Barkly and Sir Bartle Frere, to 
whom this article was submitted in proof, and their 
comments were printed in the same number of that 
Review. It had been announced in December that 
Lord Derby had expressed his substantial agree- 
ment with Mackenzie's policy, and that fact no doubt 
added to the interest with which his article was 
received. In a private letter Sir Bartle Frere made 
some useful suggestions as to the dissemination of 
the Review^ and added, "It is far the best paper 
on South African affairs I have seen for a long 
time, and ought to be read and carefully studied 
by everyone who is going to speak, write, or vote 
on the subject." 

From November ist, 1883, when the Conference 
began, more than three months elapsed before an 
agreement was reached on the first article of the 
new Convention, the article which determined the 
boundaries of the Transvaal. Lord Derby aimed 
at and secured a compromise. He agreed to the 
annexation of a rich and extensive portion, about 
2600 square miles, of South Bechuanaland to the 
Transvaal. Mackenzie of course opposed this, not, 
as he says in an unprinted manuscript on the Con- 
ference, " not in an inimical spirit to the Transvaal, 
but rather in its highest interest." He held that 
for so scattered a population as the Transvaal, and 



298 JOHN MACKENZIE 

for a Government so inefficient in departmental work, 
the addition of territory was no boon, but a burden. 
At the same time, he pressed the argument that the two 
native chiefs, Moshette and Massouw, although they 
had been induced to employ Boer volunteers, did not 
desire annexation to the Transvaal. Nevertheless, Lord 
Derby having remitted a quarter of a million pounds 
sterling, having recognised the significant title, " The 
South African Republic," having agreed to surrender 
the British right to control the Boers' treatment of 
natives, having granted the right to make treaties 
with foreign powers, subject only to the Queen's veto, 
went further still in this broad and unparalleled policy 
of " generosity " to the Transvaal, and " gave " that 
Government the right to govern the territory of 
those two native tribes. All through the discus- 
sions Mackenzie feared to assume too hostile an 
attitude, lest he should seem to be a mere partisan ; 
but with his clear conviction regarding the ultimate 
purpose of Mr Kruger's policy, he regretted deeply 
that the power to realise that purpose was thus put 
into those hands with a smile of security and of 
Imperial self-confidence. 

When the Conference at last resulted in the " Con- 
vention," that document embraced no less than twenty 
articles, drawn up in English and Dutch. Several of 
these have acquired strange significance from subse- 
quent events. For example, the fourth article forbids 
the South African Republic to conclude any " treaty 
or engagement with any State or nation other than 
the Orange Free State . . . until the same has been 
approved by Her Majesty the Queen." That singular 
exception, which was allowed with contempt, has pro- 
duced sinister results. Article IX. provides for the 
continuance of complete religious freedom for all 
denominations, " provided the same be not incon- 
sistent with morality and good order." Article XIV. 



THE LONDON CONVENTION 299 

is the famous one which became the basis of dispute 
between the Transvaal Government and the Uitlanders 
in after years. It provides for the freedom and equality 
as to property and commercial rights before the law 
of " all persons, other than natives, conforming them- 
selves to the laws of the South African Republic." 
Natives are dealt with in other articles (VIII. and 
XIX.), where slavery is forbidden, " or apprenticeship 
partaking of slavery," and the South African Republic 
" engages faithfully to fulfil the assurance " given to 
the Transvaal natives by the Royal Commission at 
the great Pretoria Pitso, or assembly of native chiefs 
and headmen, in 1881. 

The second Article was the one which, along with 
the first, " saved the face " of the British Government, 
and South Africa from becoming a Dutch Republic. 
The first half of it was as follows : — " The Govern- 
ment of the South African Republic will strictly 
adhere to the boundaries defined in the first Article 
of the Convention, and will do its utmost to prevent 
any of its inhabitants from making any encroachments 
upon lands beyond the said boundaries. The Govern- 
ment of the South African Republic will appoint Com- 
missioners upon the eastern and western borders whose 
duty it will be strictly to guard against irregularities, 
and all trespassing over the boundaries. Her Majesty's 
Government will, if necessary, appoint Commissioners 
in the native territories outside the eastern and western 
borders of the South African Republic to maintain 
order and prevent encroachments." 

Lord Derby decided that, in view of the whole 
circumstances in Bechuanaland, the provisions of 
that Article must be acted upon at once. Order 
must be restored in that land, a debt of honour 
must be paid to Montsioa and Mankoroane, the two 
loyal chiefs, and the trade route must be occupied 
in order to be kept open. To this decision Derby 



300 



JOHN MACKENZIE 



was led, not merely by a consideration of the 
rights of the case, but by the argument that the 
Cape Colony was profoundly interested in the 
matter, was prepared to share the expense of oc- 
cupying the country, and might ultimately consent 
to its annexation. The Premier of the Colony 
had been in England during part of the negotia- 
tions, and virtually pledged himself and his col- 
leagues to see that the Colonial Government bore 
its part of the cost. Lord Derby, while convinced 
of the wisdom of Mackenzie's scheme, was never 
thoroughly convinced that the British people would 
sanction the expenditure of Imperial funds to 
secure Bechuanaland or maintain British supremacy 
in South Africa. His timidity on the point was 
no doubt increased by the urgency with which 
that little group of Liberals still pressed what 
Mackenzie called the " clear-out policy." 

When Lord Derby and Sir Hercules Robinson 
were deciding what to do with Bechuanaland, the 
latter recommended that Mackenzie should be sent 
out as Deputy Commissioner. At first Derby hesitated. 
He clearly foresaw the kind of criticism which would 
be made upon the appointment of a missionary to so 
important a task, and he invited Robinson to name 
some one else. But Sir Hercules had made up his 
mind, for the time at any rate. He had been very 
closely associated with Mackenzie for some months 
now, and was evidently under the influence of his 
strong personality and his intellectual grasp of the 
situation. A few months later, when other strong 
personalities were busy around him and bearing down 
upon his too pliant will, he gave the following as the 
reasons for his nomination of John Mackenzie : " Mr 
Mackenzie was selected for the post because it was 
assumed that, having regard to his well-known in- 
fluence with the natives, as well as to his success- 



THE LONDON CONVENTION 301 

ful advocacy of Colonial interests, his appointment 
would have commanded the confidence of the 
colonists as well as of the natives over whom it was 
proposed to establish a Protectorate." The follow- 
ing is the letter to Sir Hercules Robinson, in 
which Mackenzie indicated his willingness to 
accept the appointment if offered to him by the 
Government : — 

II Queen Square, 
Bloomsbury, Zth Feb. 1884. 

Dear Sir Hercules, — With reference to your kind offer 
to recommend me to Her Majesty's Government for the 
Commissionership in Bechuanaland, I beg to express my 
thanks and my willingness to do my best in that capacity, 
should your recommendation receive the sanction of the 
Government. 

I am, however, more interested in the initiation of a 
Native Policy in South Africa by the English Government 
which would pacify the country, lead to union, and establish 
our own rule there, than I am with reference to any other 
question, even my own personal affairs. 

The government is getting the credit with the public 
of facing this subject somewhat on the lines of the article in 
the Contemporary. I meet with indications of this on all 
hands, and I feel sure they themselves will feel bound to 
look at it in this light. 

I shall be content with the smallest honest and avowed 
beginning of this policy ; and will cheerfully, and under a 
full sense of duty, take any share in working it out, for which 
they and you may think I am qualified. 

Trusting I rightly interpret the attitude of Her Majesty's 
Government towards this most important and hitherto most 
perplexing and vexatious question, I place myself at their 
disposal in connexion with it. — I am, dear Sir Hercules, 
ever yours sincerely, 

John Mackenzie. 

P.S. — If Her Majesty's Government will only give this a 
fair chance, and gradually, cautiously, and intelligently 
develop the policy I refer to, I hope to live to see a 



302 JOHN MACKENZIE 

practically united South Africa, and England relieved of 
the present irritating responsibilities in that part of the 
world. 

On February 2ist Mackenzie received Lord Derby's 
formal offer of the post, and he at once replied in 
the following letter, which summarises the main 
conditions of the appointment. The salary named to 
him was ;^I200 per annum, and necessary travelling 
expenses. 

London, 21st February 1884. 

The Right Honourable the Earl of Derby, 
Secretary of State for the Colonies. 

My Lord, — I have received your Lordship's letter of 
this date, stating your own views and those of Sir Hercules 
Robinson as to my fitness for the proposed office of Resident 
Commissioner in Bechuanaland, and desiring to know if I 
can undertake that work " under those conditions which the 
circumstances of the case render necessary." 

Your Lordship's description of those circumstances is, that 
the intervention of Her Majesty's Government in Bechuana- 
land is of a tentative and experimental character ; that 
therefore, present arrangements cannot possibly be of a 
permanent nature ; consequently, that your Lordship cannot 
guarantee the permanence of the employment which you 
now offer me; but that either party may retire from the 
arrangement should he see fit to do so. 

After giving the question the most serious consideration, 
I have come to the conclusion to accept of the offer with 
which your Lordship has honoured me. As I do so, the 
importance and the difficulty of the work are vividly 
before me. I face it with diffidence, but with a clear feeling 
that I am in the path of duty in the course which I now 
take. 

Your Lordship seems to be of the opinion that I could do 
the work required of me, while still connected with the 
Missionary Society. , This was my own view in somewhat 
parallel circumstances some years ago, and the High Com- 
missioner then wrote to the Directors of the Society, asking 
that such arrangement might be sanctioned. That sanction, 
however, was withheld, on the ground that such a union of 



THE LONDON CONVENTION 303 

offices was not in accord with the usages of the Society. I 
may now say, however, that, as individuals, the Directors are 
impressed with the great importance of the work, and approve 
of my undertaking it in present circumstances, although this 
necessitates my formal severance from the number of the 
Society's missionaries. 

The question referred to by your Lordship as to the 
action to be taken in Bechuanaland — the powers and 
duties to be assigned to the Resident Commissioner — are 
of the greatest importance ; and I shall be happy to wait 
on your Lordship for their discussion while the High 
Commissioner is still here. — I am, my Lord, Your Lord- 
ship's obedient Servant, 

John Mackenzie. 

The following brief note is of some interest at this 
point : — 

1 1 Queen Square, 
Bloomsbury, i5//^7^^<5. 1884. 

My Dear Mr Oates, — In leaving Sir H. Robinson's 
hotel this morning, I passed President Kruger and Mr du 
Toit, who were expected. I had a good look at each in 
passing. I hope to be introduced one of these days, for 
the fighting is over, so far as they are concerned ; and I am 
quite willing to shake hands. 

Dr Jorrissen has gone out in the same ship with my friends 
the Hepburns. Hepburn writes me from Madeira that Jorrissen 
is spreading the story that I have made a bother about the 
trade route, because I am largely engaged in trade myself! 
One of the passengers, a Port Elizabeth merchant, came to 
Mr Hepburn and laid the matter before him. Mr Hepburn, of 
course, was able to reply, " To my certain knowledge Mr 
Mackenzie has not touched trading even with his little finger." 

Some people are unable to believe that a man can act 
without selfish motives. They had to cast about for my 
motives. Not finding them, they have invented trade. I 
am much encouraged with the story. The cause is feeble 
which has to resort to such shifts. However, Hepburn is no 
doubt right when he says that Jorrissen is bent on mischief in 
South Africa. — Ever yours sincerely, 

John Mackenzie. 



304 JOHN MACKENZIE 

The new Convention was signed on February 27th, 
1884, and the news was at once telegraphed by Lord 
Derby to Cape Town. Mackenzie's appointment was 
announced at the same time. In England the new 
departure was condemned by those who desired to 
" clear out " of Africa ; but by all who had espoused 
the opposite policy and followed Mackenzie's tireless 
labours for eighteen months, the saving of Bechuana- 
land from the Transvaal was regarded as a great 
triumph, and the appointment of the missionary to rule 
as a Protector among his own people was welcomed 
as at once the unsought reward of his unselfish work, 
and a pledge of the earnestness of the Government. 
It is now clear that, personalities apart, the weak point 
in the whole arrangement lay in Derby's dependence 
upon the co-operation of the Cape Colony, and Robin- 
son's consequent fear that the British Government would 
not incur any initial expense in establishing the Pro- 
tectorate unless the Colony shared in it. Mackenzie, 
who later was confronted by this, considered it no 
obstacle to his acceptance of the task, being sure that 
at last the Colonial Office was entering on a consistent 
and persistent Imperialist policy in Bechuanaland and 
beyond, and being sure also of the loyal support of 
his chief. Sir Hercules Robinson. 

Congratulations came to him from all quarters. 
From private friends, of course, he received many 
words of affectionate farewell ; for he was a man 
whom strong men of all kinds learned to love with 
a strong devotion. The newspapers on the whole 
spoke heartily and hopefully of the unusual move, 
and many of the public men with whom his work 
had brought him into contact wrote or spoke to 
him warmly and generously of their confident hopes 
regarding him and his future career in South Africa. 
The latter class included Mr W. E. Forster, Sir T. 
F. Buxton, Mr Talbot Baines, and others. 



THE LONDON CONVENTION 305 

Naturally Mackenzie parted from the London 
Missionary Society with great reluctance and sorrow. 
But he was comforted by the broad and generous 
spirit in which the Directors of the Society treated 
him in private conference, and by the following 
minute which they adopted and sent to him. No 
less grateful to him were the letters which he received 
from Bechuanaland missionaries, his former fellow- 
labourers, several of whom now wrote very cordially, 
and who saw in his appointment the prophecy of 
better days for those among whom they laboured. 

London Missionary Society 
Resolution of the Board of Directors^ i(^th March 1884 

In consenting to the withdrawal of the Rev. John 
Mackenzie from the connection which he has had with the 
London Missionary Society for the period of twenty-five 
years, the Board of Directors feel that it is due both to Mr 
Mackenzie, himself, and to the Society to place on record 
the following minute : — 

That, whereas serious difficulties have arisen in South 
Africa, especially in relation to the Bechwana tribes, and that, 
the interests of good government, the progress of civilisa- 
tion, and especially the successful continuance of Christian 
work among the natives, are deeply affected thereby ; 

And, whereas, the Rev. John Mackenzie is recognised on 
all sides as a man who possesses the most intimate acquaint- 
ance with the condition of the people, and is well-known to 
the Boers, and has very great influence with the Bechwana 
people ; 

And, whereas, the Government has requested Mr 
Mackenzie to accept the post of Resident-Commissioner 
among the Bechwanas ; 

And, whereas, the work to which he is now called, though 
separating him from the immediate duties of the Christian 
Missionary, has yet an important bearing upon the successful 
prosecution of the mission of the Society among the Bechwana 
tribes ; 

Resolved that : — 

Although the Board has yielded to what seems to be a 

u 



3o6 JOHN MACKENZIE 

providential indication of the will of God, in the disposal of 
the services of its late missionary, it desires to record its 
conviction that only in very exceptional circumstances can 
the severance of a missionary from his proper duties be any- 
thing but a departure from the highest form of Christian 
labour ; but, at the same time, it would express the sense it 
entertains of the high personal character of Mr Mackenzie, 
the great value of his work in the past in the Foreign Mission 
field, the serious loss to the agency of the Society which his 
change of service involves ; and, further, it desires to affirm 
its unabated confidence in the purity and integrity of Mr 
Mackenzie's purposes, and to commend to the loving care of 
the Master, whom he has served so long, the life of its late 
missionary in the important and difficult duty to which he 
has been called. 

And the Board would further pray : — 

That through the development of a just and humane 
policy on the part of the British Government, administered 
with the firmness and gentleness which the Commissioner 
possesses, there may be inaugurated a future for the Bechwana 
people, by which the first beginnings of civilisation and the 
early lessons of the Gospel may be carried out in abundant 
prosperity, and the production of the highest virtues and the 
highest graces of the Christian life. 

The departure of Sir Hercules Robinson and that 
of John Mackenzie for the Cape w^as, in each case, 
celebrated by a public function. To the former a 
banquet was given on March 3rd, at the Empire Club, 
and a breakfast was given in honour of Mackenzie, 
at the Westminster Palace Hotel by Sir William 
M'Arthur. At the banquet. Sir Hercules spoke out 
most frankly about the British Policy in Bechuana- 
land, and especially about the inability of the Cape 
Colony to undertake the government of vast native 
territories, and the consequent responsibility of the 
Imperial Government. With all this the Earl of 
Derby expressed his emphatic concurrence. At the 
breakfast the most remarkable event was the speech 
of the Hon. Evelyn Ashley, the Under Secretary 



THE LONDON CONVENTION 307 

for the Colonies, who had previously said of every 
South African proposal, " non possumus" and who 
now uttered sentiments which gave Mackenzie the 
deepest confidence regarding the future of his own 
policy. 

Among the events which moved him most was the 
visit which Mackenzie paid to Sir Bartle Frere. He 
refers to it briefly in " Austral Africa " ; but the 
following extract from a letter to his third son, James 
Donald Mackenzie, then a student at Edinburgh 
University, adds some pathetic touches. 

Dartmouth, 14M March 1884. 

Dear Jim, — I ought to tell you of my most interesting 
and impressive visit to the sick-bed of Sir Bartle Frere. 
Lady Frere telegraphed on Tuesday that she hoped I would 
be able to call before sailing, that Sir Bartle had had such 
pleasure in hearing of my appointment. I had fully intended 
to go down that very forenoon (Wednesday), so I answered 
accordingly and went. Had lunch ; met a Sir Julius Gold- 
smith recently from the Congo, and all the Misses Frere. 
Lady Frere and they were very kind. After lunch went up. 
Sir Bartle was in bed, slightly improving, but still ill. His 
eye was bright and his expression, as well as his language, 
really noble. He spoke as one who stood on the Border- 
land and who saw both sides — the spirit-world to which 
he was near and the world in which he had been living. 
He could not have been more affectionate to me if I had 
been his son. 

After some talk he said, " Well, Mackenzie, you will make 
a good job of that out there ; I know you will. I have 
no doubt of it. You will get a lot of godly men around 
you ; see you do that, and work out your own plan, go straight 
at that, and you have the whole thing in your own hand, 
or rather you and it are in the hand of God." Many 
such expressions he used, most affectionate and hopeful. 
Shook hands ; and then, while I stood, seized and held my 
hand, which was near him. Lady Frere brought him back 
to the debatable ground of this world by saying, " My dear, 
but it was only what you wanted to do five years ago." The 
praise involved did not affect him; he strongly replied, " God's 



3o8 JOHN MACKENZIE 

time is the best time." I added by way of strengthening 
this, *' The EngUsh public now know better than then what 
is involved in these South African questions." He agreed 
warmly to this. His blessing was most devoutly given to me for 
my full success. Take this dear Jim, in connexion with the 
breakfast next morning at which there were those who have 
said that Frere should have been hanged, and I think you 
will agree with me that God has been helping me in this 
matter, in bringing together so many of divergent views to 
unite in favour of this scheme of Territorial Government of 
Natives which I have been advocating. 



On March 14th, 1884, Mackenzie, taking with him 
his wife and two youngest daughters and also his 
second son, Dr J. Eddie Mackenzie, sailed from Dart- 
mouth on the Drummond Castle, which came to so 
terrific an end in the year 1896 off the coast of 
France. At the last he was busy with farewell letters, 
a number of which were written after going on board. 
His heart was deeply moved by certain family events 
which called out letters full of tenderness and sym- 
pathy. But other letters dealt with South Africa, 
and were addressed to those who had aided him. 
In that which he sent to Dr Dale occur a few 
words whose spirit pervaded all he said and wrote 
at that time. 

Well, dear friend and helper in this good and, I trust, 
enduring work, I thank you ; and I trust thanks will be given 
to you by others when these matters are better understood. 
Patience and trust in the right ! That will be my own 
motto out there. 

We can do with a great deal of praying for. I think I 
come under two columns or paragraphs, now — missionary 
and governmental — and need it all. 

Good-bye ! Do not lose sight of the subject. Do not 
think it ought to come right all at once. Be patient also, 
and hopeful, and when all are so, it will be a happy thing 
for the workers out there. 



THE LONDON CONVENTION 309 

As he sat in the train on that 13th of March he 
was handed a newspaper by a stranger, which turned 
out to be the Pall Mall Gazette. There he found, 
unmistakably from the pen of his staunch friend and 
supporter, Mr W. T. Stead, an article entitled " Our 
First Resident in Bechuanaland." This article was 
full of Mr Stead's characteristic enthusiasm for his 
favourite projects. As it contained a description of 
Mackenzie and his work which is both vivid and im- 
pressive, most of it is here inserted. 

Our First Resident in Bechuanaland 

A sturdy, stalwart, broad-backed, beetle-browed Scots- 
man, whose sandy hair is beginning to silver with the frost 
of the second half-century of life, and whose keen blue eyes 
look out with shrewd penetrating gaze beneath a solid, but 
somewhat irregular forehead ; that is Mr Mackenzie, formerly 
of the London Missionary Society, now first British Com- 
missioner for the territory of Bechuanaland. He leaves 
London this afternoon to unravel the Gordian knot that 
Boers and filibusters, with the aid of Moshette and Massouw, 
have been busy tying for the last two years in the country 
of Mankoroane and Montsioa. This morning, before he 
left, he was entertained at a quasi-public breakfast by Mr 
M'Arthur, around whose hospitable board were assembled 
a representative gathering of politicians, philanthropists, and 
administrators, to bid God-speed to the new Resident on his 
departure for his new duties. Seldom has anyone better 
deserved a hearty recognition of his services than the man 
who has made the name of Mackenzie worthy to be linked 
with those of Moffat and Livingstone who preceded him 
at the mission station which he has exchanged for the 
Residency of a British Commissioner. The task that 
is before him is arduous ; the difficulties are all but 
insurmountable. . . . 

England may well trust that stubborn Scotchman with the 
pacification of Bechuanaland, for he has already given proof 
of his mettle, and achieved a signal success in a far more 
hopeless undertaking. ... 

When twelve months ago Mr Mackenzie entered the 



3IO JOHN MACKENZIE 

field on behalf of his Bechuana clients with unpronounce- 
able names, he had everybody against him — the Colonial 
Office, the Government, the House of Commons, the press. 
The whole nation, so far as it was articulate, was hostile to 
his project ; and, for the rest, was profoundly indifferent to 
such black fellows as Mankoroane and his kinsmen. . . . 

In Parliament there was a minority, led by Mr Forster, in 
favour of action, but the majority cared nothing for Mankoroane, 
and was prepared with philosophical equanimity to witness 
the process of natural selection applied in its rudest and 
most brutal form to the uninteresting proteges of Moffat. 
As for the press, it was indifferent where it was not hostile, 
and ill-informed where it was best-intentioned. . . . Never- 
theless, this formidable array of hostile forces did not dis- 
concert Mr Mackenzie in the least. Apart from the sustaining 
influence of what he felt to be a just cause, and his belief in 
the overruling Providence, he was buoyed up chiefly by a 
conviction in the reasonableness and intelligence of his 
fellow-countrymen. " If I can only make them see the 
facts," he said, "I do not think there need be any fear 
as to the result." And so at missionary meetings, lecture- 
rooms, and in public meetings, he set to work to make them 
see the facts. . . . Nor did he confine himself to public 
speech ; his pen was more influential than his tongue. He 
had never done writing ; and two of his articles in the reviews 
enabled him to place his scheme for the future government 
of South Africa fully before the public. It was a large 
scheme, and an imposing one, and in these days of hand- 
to-mouth policies it stood little chance of being listened to, 
much less accepted. But it was hstened to, and in its 
essentials it has already been accepted, and his articles on 
the territorial government of South Africa have become the 
text-book of British policy in that region. ... As Indian 
Viceroys used to read Mill on the Government of India, so 
future South African administrators will have to master the 
articles of Mackenzie. . . . 

There seemed no limit to his activity. He interviewed 
Cabinet Ministers, he buttonholed editors, he haunted the 
lobby of the House of Commons. He saw everyone who 
had any influence in the matter, and compassed sea and land 
if by any means he might make one proselyte. When the 
Transvaal delegates came, they imagined that they had only 
to come and see, and conquer. If they had come nine 



THE LONDON CONVENTION 311 

months earlier their anticipations might have been fulfilled. 
When they arrived, however, it was too late. Mr Mackenzie 
had been beforehand with them, and to their unconcealed 
chagrin, they found that the public would not tolerate their 
attempt to erect a Boer barrier across the great trade route 
from the Cape to Central Africa. 

Bechuanaland was saved and much more than Bechuana- 
land. . . . Mr Mackenzie secured the favourable verdict of 
the Government and of public opinion, not merely for the 
administration of Bechuanaland, but for the adoption of that 
far-reaching native policy which he has labelled the territorial 
system. . . . Without forgetting for a moment the old 
warning against boasting when donning our armour, we 
may safely say that we bid Mr Mackenzie God-speed, with 
every confidence that hereafter he will live in the annals of 
our empire as the man who, at a grave crisis, saved Africa for 
England. 



CHAPTER XII 

AFRICA JOHN MACKENZIE AS DEPUTY- 
COMMISSIONER (1884) 

Mackenzie sailed once more for South Africa, with 
high hopes and deep devotion of spirit. No one who 
knew him ever suggested that his acceptance of the 
Commissionership meant the winning of a personal 
ambition. His mind had for many years been set 
upon the problem of Britain's place and work in 
South Africa. He saw the Boers keeping themselves 
poor and lowering their educational, social, and moral 
standards steadily by their policy of indefinite expan- 
sion. He saw them " eating up " the native territories 
and casting whole tribes, who were on the road to 
civilisation, back into serfdom and degradation. He 
saw the British Government, responsible before God 
and man for South Africa, yet shrinking from the 
obvious and honourable task of controlling the history 
of an empire, irritating instead of appeasing, betraying 
the black man and teasing the white man with 
changeful policies. Now that with the support of 
others he had succeeded in persuading the govern- 
ment to face the whole problem of South Africa in a 
new way and with a new spirit, how could he decline, 
when he was in turn urged to begin the work ? He 
saw with the utmost clearness, as the natural result of 
a firm and just and steady Imperial policy, the rapid 
elevation of the Transvaal Boer and the black man, as 
well as the gradual development and ultimate con- 
federation of all South Africa. It came to him as a 
case of inexorable duty as well as a high honour, to 
share in working for a hope like that. 



AS DEPUTY COMMISSIONER 313 

The story of Mackenzie's experience as Deputy 
Commissioner, and the circumstances under which he 
resigned, together with his own subsequent work for 
South Africa, are fully told by himself in his large 
work, " Austral Africa." It will be impossible here to 
enter into the details as fully as he did. All that his 
biographer can attempt is to narrate the main events 
as they appear in the Blue Books, and in his private 
letters, leaving the reader who desires to study more 
closely this curious " turn " in South African history, 
to read it in the careful, elaborate and uncontradicted 
pages of Mackenzie's own book. 

Before he sailed, indeed before Sir Hercules 
Robinson sailed, Mackenzie received forewarnings of 
the coming storm. As soon as his appointment was 
telegraphed to Cape Town it was disapproved by the 
political leaders who were then dominant in fact 
though not in name. Among them must not be 
reckoned Sir Thomas Scanlen and some of his sup- 
porters, who represented the " English " section of the 
Cape Parliament. This party was about to be sub- 
merged, however, by the new power of the " Dutch " 
party, which the Africander Bond had been rapidly 
enlarging and which it completely controlled. From 
the latter a message came back to the London papers, 
announcing that the appointment was generally dis- 
approved, before there was time to make it widely 
known, or to gather a general opinion even in Cape 
Town ! That was the first stroke in a policy which 
was carried out with increasing virulence and with 
decreasing honesty as Mackenzie's work went on. 
Sir Hercules Robinson hastened to assure him that, as 
they both knew well " how such thunder was manu- 
factured," he must not be disturbed by the hostile 
telegram from Cape Town. Mackenzie felt sure of 
Robinson, and every such word of encouragement, of 
kindly and friendly consideration made him certain 



314 JOHN MACKENZIE 

that the Queen's High Commissioner for South Africa 
would stand true to his Deputy Commissioner, whom 
he had selected and whose appointment he had urged 
so strongly. 

When, with his wife, his second son, Dr John Eddie 
Mackenzie, and his two youngest daughters, Mackenzie 
reached Cape Town, he was very heartily received by 
many old friends and acquaintances. But his time 
was fully occupied in consultation with the High 
Commisioner and Captain Graham Bower, R.N., the 
Imperial Secretary, and in active preparations for his 
journey to the scene of his own momentous under- 
taking. The following extract from a letter to his 
eldest son gives us his first impressions of the situa- 
tion at Cape Town : — 

Cape Town, Uh April 1884. 

The English colonial politicians have given me a very poor 
requital for all that I have said in their behalf. ■ Fearing that 
my being a missionary will displease the Dutch-speaking 
colonists, they have done their utmost (I include members 
of the present ministry) to get me superseded. I got a 
bundle of newspapers yesterday from Sir Hercules, con- 
taining adverse criticism of Sir Hercules, the Missionary 
Mackenzie — especially the scheme of the latter. It was 
even mentioned to Mr Scanlen that he should wire to 
Lord Derby and get my appointment annulled. Scanlen 
had firmness and common sense enough to refuse to do 
anything of the sort. I believe the same party are agitating, 
that it should be left on record that they objected to my 
appointment. Sir H. told me this, but does not think they 
will go so far. It means that when Parliament assembles, the 
Dutch party may be gratified with the opposition to me which 
they hope to show that they have offered. This is really a case 
of doing good to a community against its will, the opera- 
tion meeting only open thanklessness, opposition, despite. 
And all this not " on the merits " ; but because I have been 
a missionary. And this fact is held to be sure to offend the 
Boers. Friends tell me the storm is subsiding, and some who 
are perhaps too ardent profess to see signs of the wind chang- 
ing round in the opposite direction. Sir Hercules is clear that 



AS DEPUTY COMMISSIONER 315 

it was worse when he arrived. But good people meet us and 
assure us that the respectable class in the Cape Colony is 
with us in what we are attempting. 

When he arrived at Kimberley, carrying with him 
the formal letter of instructions, and a further personal 
and lengthy communication from the High Com- 
missioner, his spirits rose. Assured of Robinson's 
loyal support, and hoping that the success of his work 
would appease the opponents of his appointment, he 
was still further encouraged by the spirit of friendly 
and sympathetic interest which he found at Kimberley. 
This happier frame of mind is reflected in the next 
letter to the same son. 

Kimberley, 10th April 1884. 

My Dear Willie, — Here we are, all well. The journey 
from Cape Town is very rapid, but the coach part of it is 
rough also. Your mother was not well after leaving Cape 
Town, but she is all right again. 

A considerable change has taken place, apparently, in 
opinion at the Cape concerning "the New Departure as 
to native affairs " as it is called ; and confidence in myself 
has now been cordially expressed by the Cape Times and the 
Cape Argus, the latter having had as gracefully as possible to 
perform the " Right about face." 

Here in Kimberley there has been a constant flow of 
visitors, and the greatest interest has been expressed in the 
question. I find that my articles have been read, and are 
well understood. I was told yesterday, " O, your writings 
have been read and studied in Stellaland." Representatives 
of the two rival papers here happened to find their way to 
the hotel at the same time, and had in company the benefit 
of a lengthy exposition of the new policy. They both go in 
for it, no doubt, with a sense of professional regret, because 
the one won't be able to pitch into the other. 

This affair, dear Willie, means many a tough battle — 
sometimes with those who are working with you. But God 
is good and merciful, and will help forward what I believe is 
His own blessed work in this distracted land. O for more of 
the leavening of high Christian feeling in this new country ! 



3i6 JOHN MACKENZIE 

I have had the pleasure of meeting Mr Stewart of the 
Standard Bank, and Mr Simpson of the Bank of Africa — 
both Scotchmen and both intimately acquainted with affairs 
here, travelling very much and knowing all of the best 
people. They both expressed, in private interviews, their 
deep interest in my success ; and have their eyes open to 
what it means for the country. I am much cheered by 
hearing from such a source that the great body of the 
Dutch-speaking people are thoroughly sound and loyal ; and 
that Republicanism and " Anti-English " feelings are con- 
fined to a few. This was most valuable and reliable con- 
firmation of my own view on this vital question. So I am, 
on the whole, encouraged to fight on ; I see for what I am 
fighting. May it please God to grant me to see some part 
realized. This week I hope to cross over into Bechuanaland. 
It is full of complications. It is also well stocked with evil 
men of our own colour. But I trust in God and in the 
humanity which still remains in the most of men. The 
press people here wished me to allow them to say that I 
should ratify the holdings of the white men. I refused ; 
but pointed to my scheme — narrated my fight for it in 
London — that instead of clearing the country, the country 
should be administered ; and asked them to form their own 
inference. I can't get people to see " the other side." If I 
go committed, the natives would soon hear of it ; and the 
whole thing would be discredited, so far as they are con- 
cerned. I see both sides vividly ; very awkward, but quite 
an advantage. 

I hear good news from Mr Ashton. My brethren 
sympathize, and wish me God speed. " I could not have 
done otherwise." They are also pleased with Lowe's 
appointment ; they think it augurs well. They say the 
natives are also pleased. 

I have been to church since writing as above. Have 
been asked to preach and consented ; so must conclude. 
This will go to Portobello, but there won't be much delay. 
Much love to you both, and sympathy deep and real. 
Your father, John Mackenzie. 

• •••••• 

Before the work of Mackenzie as Deputy Com- 
missioner is described some account must be given, 
even with some repetition, of the situation which he 



AS DEPUTY COMMISSIONER 317 

had to face. History in Bechuanaland had been 
rapidly made since he left the country in the middle 
of 1882. We have seen in a recent chapter how, 
after the British occupation by Colonel Lanyon and 
Colonel Warren, the country was abandoned. Treaties 
which had been offered by the native chiefs were 
ignominiously ignored ; obligations which had been 
undertaken for the time by the Imperial Government 
were gradually disowned and deserted. This was 
defended on the ground that a military occupation for 
disciplinary purposes could not be construed as 
involving civil duties, and must not lead to a per- 
manent sovereignty. It was a bitter day for the 
native chiefs when the " White Queen's Government " 
left them ; and it was a bitter experience for some of 
the British officers to leave the people whom they had 
helped and protected in the Queen's name knowing, as 
they did, that disaster would speedily fall upon their 
territories and their persons. Lord Kimberley, who 
was at that time Colonial Secretary, and Sir Hercules 
Robinson, seem to have believed in the preposterous 
theory that the Transvaal, Orange Free State, and 
Imperial Governments could agree upon boundary 
lines, and would all honourably observe them while, at 
the same time, the native chiefs outside these bound- 
aries would maintain law and order, and resist the 
incursions of white marauders. This plan for solving 
the South African problem was not only proposed but 
acted upon by British Statesmen in 1882. 

We have already seen that Mankoroane, whose seat 
of authority was Taungs, while an important chief, 
was given by the British and Transvaal Governments 
an exaggerated importance in being recognised as 
paramount chief He very materially aided Colonel 
Lanyon during the South Bechuanaland disturbances 
by refusing to join with the rebels and the other chiefs, 
and by helping to arrest one of the raiders. In 



3i8 JOHN MACKENZIE 

November 1878 he and his councillors and head-men 
presented to the British Government through Colonel 
Warren a remarkable petition in which he prayed 
the Government of the Queen to take him, his people, 
and territories under its rule. He only reserved for 
himself, and that naturally, the right to continue as 
judge among his own people at Taungs and the sur- 
rounding villages ; but even to that he added the 
petition that the Government should decide as to 
whether he fulfilled this function adequately or not. 
It need hardly be pointed out that, if this petition 
had been accepted, a large and valuable territory 
would have been peacefully and legitimately annexed, 
and the bitter troubles which afterwards came would 
have been prevented. It is scarcely credible, but 
it is the case, that this offer was not even answered 
by the British Government ! When in the years '8 1 
and '82 marauders from the Transvaal began to over- 
run Mankoroane's country, when they began to sup- 
port in actual warfare against him the very chief 
whom he had arrested in '78 on behalf of and at the 
instance of Colonel Lanyon, he found himself not only 
forsaken but hindered by his " august ally, the Govern- 
ment of Queen Victoria." In the first place, the Cape 
Government had forbidden the sale of ammunition to 
the Batlaping tribes. When therefore they found 
themselves attacked by the Boers upon whom no such 
restriction was placed, that policy had the effect of 
actual war against the natives. In the next place, it 
must be remembered that the British Government had 
at an earlier time absorbed a considerable part of the 
territory occupied by Mankoroane's people, making 
them British subjects. It was therefore unlawful and 
criminal for them to go out and fight with their own 
chief against his Boer enemies. Surely injustice or 
blundering could hardly go farther than that. Its 
natural result was to be found of course in the dismay 



AS DEPUTY COMMISSIONER 319 

and distrust of the native tribes, who felt themselves 
not only ignored and scorned but betrayed by this 
very Government which they had always regarded as 
the fountain of justice and security. 

Such policy or absence of policy, on the other 
hand, embittered the inhabitants of the Transvaal, who 
saw in it a kind of negative assurance that they might 
do what they liked with Bechuanaland ; the Queen 
saw no value in it. And yet a third class were 
affected, for those white people, whether Dutch or 
English, who lived in northern Cape Colony and 
Bechuanaland, and who believed that the best thing 
for the country would have been the establishment of 
Imperial authority and control, became convinced that 
no South African could henceforth put any trust in 
the constancy or wisdom of the Colonial Office. 

This was of course a golden opportunity for the 
Boers within the Transvaal. Their enjoyment of 
independence after 1881 was seriously marred by a 
partial recurrence of those conditions whose misery 
made the annexation of 1877 at once a humiliation 
and a redemption. Once more the old cure for 
internal disease was sought, by pushing out the 
boundaries and taking new and rich farmlands into 
the republic. Mackenzie was one of the few who saw 
that this method of cure was aggravating the disease. 
But it was recognised that in the neighbourhood of 
British Colonies the annexation of territory must be 
carried through with at least the outward appearance 
of legal formality. Formal treaties or contracts were 
made between groups of Boers and certain native 
chiefs. These treaties were used as the foundations 
for new republics, it being understood that as soon as 
the republics gained formal recognition by the British 
Government they would be absorbed by the South 
African Republic.^ 

^ Niekerk's avowal, C. — 4194, p. il. 



320 JOHN MACKENZIE 

There were four native chiefs whose lands lay- 
nearest the Transvaal or partly within it, on the 
south - western border, and whose names became 
prominent in these years. They belonged to two 
sections of the Bechuana race known as the Batlaping 
and the Barolong. The territories of the latter were 
the more northerly, Mafeking being their best known 
centre. The former occupied a large territory within 
which Vryburg now stands. Each of these sections 
again was broken up between rival tribes which were 
often engaged in petty wars with one another ; and 
the Boers made most skilful use of these local 
rivalries and fights. Alike among the Barolong and 
the Batlaping they cleverly named the chief whose 
territory lay next the Transvaal as the paramount 
chief of these " nations," as they grandiloquently but 
confusedly called them. These nominations were 
made in defiance of the facts, which were notorious 
throughout Bechuanaland. Having made extravagant 
promises to each of these so-called paramount chiefs, 
it was easy to induce them to make the necessary 
treaties and sign the necessary documents on which 
the further march of civilisation was to proceed. 

For example, let us take the foundation of the 
republic of Stellaland. The Boers supported Massow 
of Mamusa against Mankoroane, whose head-town was 
Taungs. On January ist, 1882, Massow was induced 
to sign a proclamation in which he announced his 
intention of enlisting 300 white men as volunteers to 
assist him in fighting his rival. He promised each of 
the volunteers in his service a farm of 3000 morgen, 
and half of the total booty was to be divided among 
them. On May 3rd, a further invitation was issued 
for a hundred additional volunteers. During these 
and the following months, volunteers were trooping 
into the country by scores, settling down on all the 
accessible farms, and even stretching the boundary 



1 



AS DEPUTY COMMISSIONER 321 

into the territory of Mankoroane. They quickly 
formed head-quarters at a place which they named 
Vryburg. A committee of management of the volun- 
teers was now in existence ; it took the next " legal " 
step by securing on January i8th, 1883, yet another 
proclamation from poor Massow, conferring upon them 
the power of self-government within such part of his 
territory as was then " inhabited by the white inhabi- 
tants, volunteers, and other persons authorised by us 
thereto." The chairman of the Board of Management 
was thereafter to be recognised as Administrator of the 
aforesaid territory. On September i8th, 1883, the 
" Republic of Stellaland " was formally established, 
and a government organised. A flag was adopted, 
which was afterwards described in full by Sir Charles 
Warren.^ In one quarter a bird, said to stand for 
Mankoroane, was represented as caught and held by a 
white man's hand ; in another there was depicted a 
fish, the sacred emblem of the Batlaping, pierced 
through with a sword. Thus, not without prayer and 
pious exclamations, was the standard consecrated, 
which committed the new republic to the destruction 
of the black race. Mackenzie's first task was to 
destroy this republic and bring the territory under 
British rule. 

• •till 

At Kimberley Mackenzie began to encounter 
practical difficulties. He found that, as soon as it 
was known that the Imperial Government meant 
business and that South Bechuanaland was to be kept 
from the Transvaal, intense activity was created among 
land-jobbers. These comprised some whom every 
white man knew to be rascals, and others who stood 
in good odour in the business world. Some were 
known, alas ! to be acting as agents for yet others 
who stood still higher in the social and political circles 

1 C— 4643, p. 201. 

X 



322 JOHN MACKENZIE 

of Cape Colony. To all these it seemed nothing less 
than disaster to see Mackenzie, the exponent of a fair 
and honourable native and land policy, laying his 
hands upon the reins of power, in the name of the 
Imperial Government. They saw a land commission 
to establish English justice between black and white, 
between Boer and Britain, entering Bechuanaland. 
They saw many fair farms, which had been filched 
from native chiefs by lies and fraud, given back. 
Some big firms saw the extensive domains which 
were coming into their hands by the failure of their 
debtors, saved from this sacred destiny. It was a 
maddening prospect. But there was one way out ; 
and that was annexation to the Cape Colony ! 
Moreover, to make that more palatable to the British 
Government, the Colonial Office must be harassed by 
the failure of its Deputy Commissioner. The Parlia- 
ment at Cape Town could be managed, or events 
could be delayed indefinitely, if only a movement for 
annexation to the Colony could be set on foot and 
the Imperial administration could be discredited. To 
secure the latter end it was necessary to do two 
things ; first, to hinder Mackenzie's success on the 
spot ; and second, to send alarming messages to the 
London papers. Mackenzie came to know that one 
of the most unprincipled land-jobbers in the country 
was in a position to use one of the leading news 
agencies. From him and his co-workers went forth 
the telegrams which announced in England that 
Mackenzie was meeting opposition in Stellaland, that 
the Boers were ready to fight, and certain to win ; 
and once it was announced, without a fraction of 
truth in the statement, that the Deputy Commissioner 
had been assaulted and murdered ! 

The following long letter to Sir Hercules Robinson 
describes in a lively manner the strange world of plots 
and counterplots in which he found himself, and the 



AS DEPUTY COMMISSIONER 323 

schemes by which British subjects of British blood were 
trying to prevent Bechuanaland from coming under 
British authority, for the sake of land ! 

KiMBERLEY, 4^r//2IJ/, 1884. 

Dear Sir Hercules, — My stay at Kimberley, which is 
now drawing to a close, has placed me in close contact with 
the opinion of the leading men of the town and district. The 
Bechuanaland question is the question here, and the " New 
Departure" and the ''Territorial Government" are in much 
favour. The hotel has been besieged with visitors every day 
— some of them fresh from Stellaland — others from Kuruman 
and different places in Bechuanaland. Many of the latter I 
•see in the street, especially at the early market, which I have 
visited on purpose. 



We are in great danger of being thrown into the utmost 
disrepute, I do not say with philanthropists, but in the House 
of Commons — in the face of English public opinion — by the 
state of things with which we have to do. I say this after 
seeing Hill from Stellaland, and other friends of that side, as 
well as friends of Donovan. Land, land, land — -a wearisome 
monotone. You have done the Colony a good turn in 
London, without any thanks. Now your bantling Native 
Department is hustled out of the way of eager and selfish 
men who care for you and the Queen whom you serve only 
for what they can enter in money columns. Mr Hill goes to 
Stellaland with an annexation petition in his pocket. Mr 
Donovan advertizes that he has over a hundred farms in 
Mankoroane's country, which he offers on certain terms ; but 
application must be made at once. Haste on both sides, and 
at the risk of grave complications, and with the certainty of 
increasing the difficulties of Her Majesty's Government. 
The friends of Stellaland disapprove of Donovan ; Donovan 
on his side so deeply disapproves of the Stellalanders that 
he wants to fight them, or rather to induce others to 
do so. 

But if Stellaland people get what they want, and Donovan 
gets what he wants, what remains for the native ? Where is 
our prestige for fair dealing in the eyes of the natives of the 
interior ? Where do we stand in England in the estimation 



324 JOHN MACKENZIE 

of any class of politicians ? You have been opposed in this 
Native Department from the first by those not far from you 
in Cape Town. I see their hand in certain telegrams to 
London — in the Stellaland Mission — in the indecent haste 
for annexation to the Cape Colony. The whole thing 
indicates the shallowest ideas of the realities of the 
situation. 

I remember our discussions about a Viceroy as compared 
with combining the duties of High Commissioner and Governor 
in one person. I trust that as High Commissioner you will 
be able to uphold the Native Department which is being 
created, and not allow colonial politicians to bring it into 
disrepute almost at its birth ; what they need to be taught is 
simply patience ; the farms will become saleable ; annexation 
will take place, but not by their eager haste. After seeing 
more than one person from Stellaland besides Mr Hill, and 
comparing their statements, I found Hill's to be most opposed 
to the Imperial Government's plan. A man who professed 
to have come direct from Niekerk, and who frankly told me 
when leaving, that he was " off to write to Niekerk " what 
had transpired at our interview, gave me a much more cheer- 
ing picture of what awaited me than did Mr Hill. According 
to Hill, I had no chance whatever, only he kindly said he did 
not think they would do me any bodily harm. The last 
words of the other man, professing to be directly acting for 
Niekerk, were, '' Well ! shall I say to Niekerk, that you will 
see him and talk matters over with him ? " I answered, " By 
all means, I not only consent to see Mr Niekerk, but will be 
glad to do so ; and you will please to tell him so." I have no 
hesitation in saying before entering Stellaland, that just as 
the telegrams to London were meant to do deadly damage, 
so was this visit to Stellaland. Both are equally reckless 
of results ; and both with God's help will be equally 
futile. 

What Colonial Ministers should do just now — I am not 
thinking about this ministry or that — is to come forward like 
men with a quota from the Colony towards the Territorial 
Government of Bechuanaland. That is what is expected of 
them by all classes in England, as you yourself are aware. I 
believe this will be done by the Cape Colony, whether by Mr 
Scanlen or not. 

Territorial Government would suit the respectable men 
in Stellaland ; it is quite adapted to their case, and their 



1 



AS DEPUTY COMMISSIONER 325 

burdens under it would be less than under the Colony. It 
would not suit the books of impatient traders and specu- 
lators, and these are the men we have really to face in Stella- 
land and in Mankoroane's country. 

What its reception will be, after the petition referred to 
has been so hurriedly signed, I can't profess to say. Time 
will tell, if as Hill assures me, they don't shoot me. If one 
had only fair play I In the meantime, in the opinion of 
some your Deputy cuts a sorry figure going into a country 
where he has been forestalled by colonial wire-pullers ; but 
the truth is that this same Colony and its politicians will 
sink in good men's estimation on account of what has just 
been done; when people contrast their abstention from 
saving Bechuanaland to the Colony, when in London they 
could have done something toward it, with their rushing 
at it and grabbing it as soon as it had been reserved for an 
entirely different fate by the Imperial Government. 

When he entered the hostile territory, this new and 
strange Deputy Commissioner invaded it with a mule- 
waggon, in which rode his wife and two little daughters. 
His retinue consisted otherwise of his son, the medical 
officer of the force and private secretary of his father, 
and some men-servants. There was not a fire-arm in 
the entire force. It was not, indeed, the usual plan for 
subduing a young and vigorous republic, for over- 
awing freebooters and scapegraces as well as deter- 
mined frontier farmers of bitter spirit, who all hated 
the idea of becoming English and being ruled by an 
ex-missionary. It was not the plan which would 
have occurred to a Captain Bower or won the ap- 
proval of blustering politicians. But men of another 
stamp, men like General Gordon, would have seen 
through it and applauded it as more effective than 
cavalry and pom-poms. Mackenzie was going back 
to his own country, which he now knew better even 
than " bonnie Scotland." He had travelled over all 
its main roads, knew its towns and their chiefs per- 
sonally, some of them intimately. He had ridden 
often across and across it on horseback, alone, by 



326 JOHN MACKENZIE 

night and day, for one hundred miles or more. By 
bright moonlight he knew the aspect of its desert 
stretches and the shadows of its sad, solitary kopjes. 
At noontide its fierce heat had struck horse and rider 
with sun stabs from above, and wearied them with the 
dull waves of fiery air which the hard bare earth 
threw up. He knew also the white man of the region, 
as well as the black man and the grey sand. He was 
not going into the unknown therefore, running into a 
foolish peril. He knew that the best work would be 
done by moral influences, and he proposed to use all 
that were at his disposal. If he had entered alone 
with one hundred volunteers at his back, his mission 
would have had a military, coercive character. Enter- 
ing as he did, he appeared as one who came con- 
fidently and peacefully to make his home in his 
own land. The chiefs who had complained that the 
White Queen's Government " was always going away " 
would see that it had come to stay. The Boers and 
the other whites would see that the new Deputy 
Commissioner was not only a man of peace, but a 
man who trusted them. A commander with armed 
volunteers they would instinctively feel to be against 
them, but a Commissioner who brought his family 
among the avowed enemies of the Queen, how was he 
to be met? 

The first point in Bechuanaland to which Mac- 
kenzie went was naturally Taungs, where Mankoroane, 
the chief of that part of South Bechuanaland, lived. 
He arrived there on Wednesday, April 30th, 1884. 
His object was to negotiate a treaty with Mankoroane 
which would place that region completely under the 
Queen's dominion. For three days the diplomatic battle 
raged — Mackenzie single-handed against the "strenu- 
ous, although covert, opposition of a few white men, who 
profess to be friends and advisers of Mankoroane." ^ 

^ C. — 4194, p. 16. 



AS DEPUTY COMMISSIONER 327 

The Deputy Commissioner did not attempt to brow- 
beat them or to drive the chief. He calmly and re- 
peatedly stated the facts connected with his appear- 
ance as the representative of the Queen, showed them 
the advantage to all concerned of a treaty that wo'uld 
make a strong and stable government possible, and 
gave his reasons for not blindly swallowing all the 
land-claims of the white " agent " and his friends. 
The white men tried every form of persuasion upon 
Mankoroane and his headmen. But so bitter and 
angry did their language against Mackenzie become, 
that at last the shrewd old native broke out with the 
stinging retort, " Why do you object to the messenger 
of your own Queen ? If I give myself up entirely to 
her why are you Englishmen afraid ? " Then Mac- 
kenzie knew that he had won. Of course there were 
white men even at Taungs who had welcomed him 
and his administrative plans from the first. They 
were glad to see the unscrupulous defeated, and glad 
to see a treaty signed by which Mankoroane and his 
tribe surrendered jurisdiction within his territories to 
the Queen's Government. " The opposition to the 
treaty then took up the attitude that they had not 
properly understood it ; it was really good, and ought 
to be signed at once." ^ 

The Deputy Commissioner then faced what was 
considered a most critical part of his undertaking, 
namely, the visit to Vryburg. It was not without 
danger, of course ; but the amount of danger was very 
largely dependent, as in all such cases, upon the 
personal bearing and methods of the man who 
encountered it. Major Stanley Lowe who had been 
so long identified with Bechuanaland, and whom 
Mackenzie had appointed to the task of raising a 
small body of volunteers for service as a border 
police, accompanied the party. His presence was 

1 C. — 4194, p. 16. 



328 JOHN MACKENZIE 

necessary, in order to discover what number of police 
the situation demanded, and how they could be best 
disposed over the country. There had come to 
Taungs a message from the " Administrator " of 
Stellaland, Mr G. J. Van Niekerk, inviting Mackenzie 
to go round by his farm on his way to Vryburg, 
as the " government offices " were at his place. 
Mackenzie agreed, made the detour, spent a day with 
the " Administrator," and then went on to Vryburg, 
where he arrived on Friday, May 9th. The rough 
and ready frontiersmen had a certain feeling for the 
fitness of things, and resolved to do all honour to the 
representative of the Queen. Accordingly, they rode 
out on horseback to meet the waggons, carrying their 
gloomy flag with them. After a formal greeting they 
turned and escorted the Deputy Commissioner into 
the town. It is significant of the moral effect of 
Mackenzie's entire method of meeting the situation, 
that these men sent a messenger in advance of their 
own cavalcade to say that Mrs Mackenzie must not be 
alarmed when she saw them approach, as they were 
bent only on peace. If Mackenzie had ridden 
with imperial pride, at the head of a hundred volun- 
teers, armed with rifles, there would have been no 
such kindly message as that, itself a suggester and 
forerunner of peace. There might have been an 
ambuscade. 

The same afternoon a meeting was convened, at 
which more than fifty men were present. Mackenzie's 
first step was to read his commission, and to announce 
that the Queen's Protectorate had been established in 
Bechuanaland, including Stellaland. This was a 
complete and overwhelming surprise. It took some 
days of explanation and rumination for some of the 
leading and most daring spirits to realise that, in the 
eyes of the world, no such government as Stellaland 
existed, and that they were now under Queen Victoria I 



AS DEPUTY COMMISSIONER 329 

For a week Mackenzie remained at this place, spend- 
ing day after day, in private and personal conferences 
with the Stellalanders. It is only right to say that he 
amazed those who watched him sympathetically, with 
the untiring courtesy and invincible patience of his 
bearing. He sat for hours in committee meetings, 
answering questions, listening to protests against the 
entire procedure. These were not always couched in 
polite language. Indeed, so strong was the spirit of 
a certain group, and so vehement their denunciations 
of the Queen and the country whom Mackenzie repre- 
sented, and yet so silent and imperturbable was the 
Deputy Commissioner, that Stanley Lowe rushed out 
of the place and, after the relief of some indignant 
expletives, said to his son : " Mackenzie, your father 
must be more than human to stand all that as 
he does ! " But it was this wise, patient, and 
frank dealing which gained for him his remarkable 
victory. 

Van Niekerk arrived on the Saturday evening from 
his farm. All Monday the Volks Committee, a duly 
elected body and the nucleus of a Raad, through which 
the affairs of the republic were conducted, discussed 
the situation. They drew up a list of eleven questions, 
which they asked Mackenzie to answer before them 
the same evening. Some of these he dealt with on 
the spot, some he deferred to the following day. On 
all subjects he tried to take a position which his 
auditors would feel to be at once fair and reasonable, 
both from his and from their own points of view. To 
the class of original volunteers, he promised that their 
farms would be given, but if the particular farm now 
claimed were needed for Governmental purposes, or 
reserved for the natives, an equivalent farm or a fair 
price in cash would be given. Regarding all other 
farm claims, which were numerous, Mackenzie said 
that a Land Commission would have to be appointed 



330 JOHN MACKENZIE 

at the earliest possible opportunity to inquire into 
their history and validity. On the delicate subject of 
the money obligations of Stellaland he again frankly 
accepted the situation, but threw responsibility back 
upon themselves. In accepting their assets he must 
also accept their debts. But these must be carefully 
scrutinised, and they must be all paid by the taxation 
of the farmers themselves, and not out of imperial 
funds. 

The " Administrator " was anxious to be clear 
regarding the actual relations now established, and 
the following conversation took place in which the 
firmness of Mackenzie appears. 

The Administrator. Must I understand that by read- 
ing of his Commission, Mr Mackenzie takes over the country 
as British territory, and as part of Bechuanaland ? 

Mr Mackenzie. That is the fact. 

The Administrator. Does Mr Mackenzie, by reading 
the Commission, mean to imply that the Government of 
Stellaland ceases to exist ? 

Mr Mackenzie. It stands to reason that two govern- 
ments cannot exist in one country. But, in the spirit in 
which we have been discussing matters this evening, it is my 
wish to receive, over the heads of the people here, all that 
will enable the incoming Government to carry on the 
government of the country and promote its prosperity. 

The Administrator wishes to know whether Mr 
Mackenzie intends to assume the reins of government at 
once. 

Mr Mackenzie. The question is already answered in my 
answer about the proclamation ; Her Majesty's Government 
cannot both be in and out of the country. With regard to 
the immediate change of affairs, it is my hope to entrust 
them into hands which will be suitable and agreeable also, 
from the people's point of view. 

The last words refer to an act by which the 
Deputy Commissioner sought to win over completely 
the still hostile minority. Under the power given him 



AS DEPUTY COMMISSIONER 331 

by the High Commissioner he nominated, as his 
Assistant Commissioner for that part of Bechuanaland, 
whom but G. J. Van Niekerk himself? No one 
expected this, and it certainly produced much astonish- 
ment in Stellaland. Here was a British officer, who 
showed much firmness in his representation of the 
Imperial Government, strong determination to have 
the presence and authority of that government recog- 
nised and made effective at once ; and yet he was 
willing to deal fairly with Dutchmen, and even to use 
their Administrator as his assistant. The people, 
except those who already disliked Van Niekerk, were 
very much pleased. The Volks Committee formally 
approved of the appointment, ad interim^ " until such 
time as it should be decided whether the Colonial 
Government takes over this territory." This was the 
disturbing feature in Mackenzie's work at Vryburg. 
Under the advice of some English-born colonists at 
Cape Town and Kimberley, the Stellalanders had 
petitioned for annexation to the Cape Colony. Men 
like Niekerk went into this simply to stave off the 
evil day, and with the real determination to carry out 
their original intention of uniting with the Transvaal 
or remaining independent. But so strong was the 
majority who now favoured Mackenzie's plans that it 
seemed possible, if Van Niekerk would take the oath 
of office, to win them all over. 

Unfortunately Mackenzie was expected to hasten 
north, to Montsioa's country, and he was compelled 
to make a temporary arrangement with the Adminis- 
trator and the inhabitants of Stellaland. In the 
meantime, with the assistance of Major' Stanley Lowe, 
peace and order could be maintained for a few weeks 
till his return. 

Mackenzie was himself much surprised at his 
success. That there were some men unreconciled in 
Stellaland he well knew. But he received unmistak- 



332 JOHN MACKENZIE 

able proof that the very large majority of the white 
men — Boers, English, Colonials, and others — believed 
in him, and were ready to welcome his administration. 
The men who were engaged at Cape Town in the 
pleasant task of " tripping him up," as he afterwards put 
it, denied that he had won over the white population. 
Of course they could not have admitted that fact and 
tripped him up at the same time. We shall see later 
what means they used to destroy his success, and even 
to conceal the proofs of it when these were at last 
put into the one indisputable form of a popular 
vote. 

On his way to Montsioa's country the Deputy Com- 
missioner paid a passing visit to Moshette at Kunwana. 
This was one of the chiefs whom the Boers had used 
as a cat's paw, and whom they had represented as 
longing to be under the Transvaal. Mackenzie knew 
the representation had been false, but looked upon the 
chief as paying the price of his past misdeeds. Yet 
it was hard not to sympathise with the wretched 
man in his chagrin and dismay. The visit to Kun- 
wana was naturally not a cheering one for either 
party, since it was Mackenzie's duty to announce to 
Moshette that the rumours he had heard were true ; 
he was now and henceforth under the Transvaal 
Government. ^ 

Mackenzie arrived at Mafeking on Tuesday, May 
20th, 1884, and entered immediately into conference 
with the heroic old chief Montsioa. Some one ought 
to write the life of this man, and call his book " The 
First Hero of Mafeking." He would find in Mont- 
sioa's life-long struggle with the Boers for the freedom 
of his country abundance of stirring adventure. He 
would find in Montsioa's relations to the British 
Government much food for humiliating reflection — the 
black chieftain showing himself so much more noble in 

1 C— 4194, pp. 36, 37. 



AS DEPUTY COMMISSIONER 333 

patience, in his loyal trust, in frank sincerity, than the 
ever-changeful Government whose protection he be- 
lieved in and most earnestly sought. Montsioa could 
not send pithy and humorous telegrams when be- 
sieged, but he knew how to send messages of another 
kind. As far back as May 1883, Mr Nicholas Gey 
van Pittius had attempted to claim Barolong land 
outside the Transvaal border. Montsioa based his 
denial of all claims firmly upon the Pretoria Conven- 
tion of 1 88 1. In March 1884 he again addressed 
" the Gentlemen Volunteers, Rooi-Grond," who felt 
the time had come for surveying and settling his 
country. Montsioa, the real gentleman throughout 
these negotiations, says, " I warn you again as a friend 
that I will not let you do anything of that kind." A 
month later the same " Gentlemen Volunteers " issued 
another threat and dated it from " Land Goosen," as 
they hoped to rename the territory. Montsioa 
answered curtly, " My friends, I do not know the 
Land Goosen you write of. My people are living on 
the lands their fathers have lived on — the lands of 
the Barolong." 

When Mackenzie reached Mafeking the entire 
population were jubilant. Montsioa at once signed a 
treaty, in which he gave the British Government 
jurisdiction within his country and power to raise 
taxes for the defrayal of expenses. The Boers, led 
now by Gey van Pittius, had begun to make a little 
town which they called Rooi Grond, part of which 
was in the Transvaal and part in Montsioa's territory. 
These worthless huts were, of course, put there to 
establish claims, and were not much occupied. Mac- 
kenzie rode over to meet with these Boers, but he 
found them very " shy." They formed an armed and 
mounted band of about forty men, as reckless char- 
acters as could be found in South Africa, men who 
stooped to do many cruel and murderous acts upon 



334 JOHN MACKENZIE 

white men as well as black. With a little company 
of half-a-dozen, including his son and the Rev. C. S. 
Franklin, a Wesleyan Missionary who later acted as 
his secretary, he rode over to the settlement. The 
Boer laager was a little way from the water to which 
Mackenzie resolved to send his horses to drink. This 
left him completely at the mercy of Gey van Pittius. 
When the latter sent two men on horseback to inquire 
what he wanted, Mackenzie began without loss of 
time to read his commission and announcement of the 
Queen's Protectorate. " But we were not told to 
listen to that," the horsemen said, and rode away as 
if from a more material volley, leaving the Deputy 
Commissioner to shout the last words after them as 
they clattered off. 

These desperadoes took advantage of the chance 
given them, when all the Barolong men were gathered 
in the town to hear and celebrate the making of the 
treaty, and swooped down upon some cattle - posts 
about fifteen miles north of the town. They captured 
booty worth more than ;^I500, and carried it across 
the line into the Transvaal ; there they were at once 
safe, for the Barolong would not cross that line even 
to recapture their cattle until the White Queen or her 
servants should allow them. This incident is men- 
tioned here because it was the occasion for a some- 
what adventurous trip which Mackenzie made. He 
drove across the border to Zeerust, into the very 
district where the cattle had been taken for distribu- 
tion. Many of the desperadoes were there, and he 
saw them. Some of them were men whom he had 
known in former days, and they saw him. It was 
gratifying to find that a large number of the most 
respectable burghers disowned and disliked these 
brutal cattle raids ; and yet Mackenzie's complaint to 
the magistrate of the district was quite fruitless. It 
was all reported at Pretoria, of course, as indeed every 



AS DEPUTY COMMISSIONER 335 

occurrence on that western border was reported con- 
tinually. But the Transvaal Government sent back 
word to the Zeerust magistrate that he must take no 
action.^ Thus the poor Barolong found that their 
first experience of British protection was just this : 
they must never cross that line for revenge or even 
for the recovery of their property ! 

Mackenzie's efforts to reach the Goshen freebooters 
were all fruitless. These men having no real domicile 
in Bechuanaland, and making the Transvaal the base 
of their operations, could not be brought under his 
official and personal influence, as the Stellalanders had 
been. They were, besides, almost all men of a wilder 
and more lawless kind, who were determined to use 
the roughest means for crushing the indomitable 
Montsioa and seizing his lands. Shortly after 
Mackenzie's departure, there was some actual fighting. 
The Barolong burned the unoccupied huts on their 
side of the border ; and the Boers at once sent word 
all over South Africa, that the savages had come upon 
their homes, with women and children in them, and 
destroyed them with ruthless cruelty. Reprisals were 
now felt to be legitimate, and an attack was made by 
Transvaal citizens, using Transvaal territory as their 
base, upon territory which had but just been pro- 
claimed as under the protection of the Queen. Of 
course these men would not have done this, if there had 
been even fifty British police, under a British officer, 
on the spot. The Pretoria Government, which knew 
all and allowed all that went on, would most assuredly 
have prevented any act which would inevitably and at 
once have meant a conflict with Great Britain. The 
day for that had not yet come within sight. But 
the Pretoria Government knew all the cross winds that 
were blowing at Cape Town, knew that the Cape 
ministry were thwarting Mackenzie, preventing the 

^ C. — 4194, p. 112. 



336 JOHN MACKENZIE 

sending of an efficient police force, scheming for a 
Joint-Protectorate of Bechuanaland by Cape Colony 
and the Transvaal, and knew that they were safe to 
allow these border raids to go on. In fact, they soon 
saw that, afraid as the High Commissioner was of an 
open conflict, their best plan was to let the disorder 
grow worse, the fierce will of the Goshenites to grow 
fiercer. In the meantime, poor Montsioa saw once 
more that the best government he knew of " had 
gone away " from his town, leaving him more hated 
and less powerful than ever, before his foes. 

Mackenzie made the remainder of his tour round 
northern and western Bechuanaland more rapidly. 
He was detained at one place, where natives had lifted 
the cattle of some white people, by the determination to 
exert " even-handed justice " upon black as well as 
white marauders. He was determined that no one 
should be able to accuse him of showing any partiality 
for natives. 

At Kuruman he left his wife and daughters, 
appointed his son to stem the progress of small-pox, 
by making a vaccinating tour through the infested 
region, and made his own way back to Taungs. He 
reached that place at the end of June, and at once 
was in communication again with the Stellalanders. 
A deputation was sent to meet him from the Volks 
Committee, the body in whom now supreme power 
among the white settlers rested. Their report to him 
was very interesting. The first fact was that Niekerk 
had forsaken them, declining all responsibtility for he 
government of the country under Mackenzie. The 
second fact was that the Volks Committee had 
assumed full control of the situation, had communi- 
cated with Cape Town, and found that the prospects 
of annexation to the Colony were so dim and confused 
that no action could be taken in relation to them. 
The third fact was that they wished Mackenzie at 



AS DEPUTY COMMISSIONER 337 

once to go over the terms of submission to the 
Imperial Government, then to go to Vryburg " and 
hoist the British flag." " Such," says Mackenzie to 
Robinson with emphasis, " such was the request of 
Dutch-speaking as well as English-speaking members 
of the Deputation." ^ Niekerk was given one more 
chance to take the oath of allegiance and accept the 
office, which he had formerly agreed to accept. But 
he refused, choosing to remain a Transvaal citizen, 
and maintaining his residence within the Transvaal. 
Mackenzie was informed by the Stellalanders that at 
this very time he was promising to his own party that 
the country would be annexed to the Transvaal, 
while he professed at Cape Town to be anxious for 
annexation to the Colony. 

When Mackenzie went to Vryburg, he was received 
with much more than the studious courtesy of the 
former occasion. There was some fear of hostile 
action from Niekerk, and armed horsemen went out 
several hours ride to meet the Deputy Commissioner, 
and escort him to the town. He was conducted to 
the court-house, and there it was arranged that a full 
meeting of the citizens should be held a week later, 
on a Monday. In the interval, several of the leading 
men in the place, including Mr Bodenstein, a brother 
of the chairman of the Transvaal Volksraad, went out 
in different directions to visit the farmers and state 
the facts fully to them, arguing for co-operation with 
Mackenzie. While they were still away Mackenzie 
went on with his work, as an Imperial officer in actual 
authority. He found all the officers of the Govern- 
ment ready to be sworn in, and they were sworn in. 
Some new appointments were made. On the day 
after his arrival there was a strong desire expressed, 
especially by farmers who had come from the Colony, 
to hoist the British flag. But the Deputy Com- 

1 C— 4194, p. 114. 
Y 



338 JOHN MACKENZIE 

missioner was very careful to avoid any rash step, 
which might bring dishonour on that flag ; so he put 
the proposal off. On the following Monday the 
public meeting was largely attended. Three resolu- 
tions were proposed and unanimously adopted, in 
which the Stellalanders, while still hoping for annexa- 
tion to Cape Colony, accepted British rule. In the 
midst of these resolutions the following words occur : 
" This meeting further desires hereby to record its 
welcome to John Mackenzie, Esquire, Her Majesty's 
Representative and Deputy Commissioner for Bechu- 
analand, as the restorer of peace and prosperity to 
this country, and call upon all lovers of peace in 
Stellaland to co-operate under Her Majesty's rule for 
the maintenance of law and order, and the promotion 
of the prosperity of the country and its inhabitants." 
Perhaps the most significant of the resolutions was 
that in which the Stellalanders named G. J. Van 
Niekerk and A. J. G. De la Rey, as men who were 
inciting " the inhabitants of Stellaland to oppose law 
and order in this territory, now under Her Majesty's 
rule." The resolution further stated that these two 
men were holding public meetings for these " treason- 
able purposes " within the Transvaal, and urged the 
High Commissioner to call the attention of the South 
African Republic to these " unlawful acts." 

Mackenzie's triumph in Stellaland was complete. 
Out of the burghers he enrolled a small force of 
twenty-five men, for duty in that district ; the anti- 
British element was in the minority, and had already 
lost moral influence by holding meetings across the 
new border in the Transvaal. So enthusiastic were 
the people, that on that second meeting they insisted 
on hoisting the British flag. On hearing that this 
might be done, Sir Hercules Robinson telegraphed 
in alarm : — 

Hoisting the British flag is technically the symbol of 



AS DEPUTY COMMISSIONER 339 

sovereignty ; Bechuanaland is only native territory under 
a British Protectorate ; and you are not justified in altering 
the status without the express sanction of Her Majesty's 
Government. 

One can hardly believe that the British High 
Commissioner sent that telegram only eighteen years 
ago, concerning the territory just north of Kimberley. 
Mackenzie's answer by telegram on August 3rd was 
as follows : — 

As to the flag, please remember the flag of Stellaland was 
flying when I entered Vryburg. The people themselves went 
and quietly took it down. I declined then to hoist our 
flag until the public meeting had taken place. After the 
first meeting I was importuned to hoist it. I declined till 
the second or adjourned meeting had taken place. After it 
I felt bound to hoist it. They had voluntarily pulled down 
their flag, which had been handed to me. There is such a 
thing as inducing people to distrust you. Had the flag not 
been hoisted after the meeting I should have lost the support 
of the best people here. All the officers have taken the oath. 
We have been exercising sovereignty in Stellaland since we 
first set foot in it. From the first there has been more than 
a Protectorate here. 

" There is such a thing as inducing people to dis- 
trust you," might be written as a fair judgment upon 
most of Great Britain's dealings alike with Boer and 
black in South Africa. 

We shall soon see how and by whom that flag was 
taken down, and the Stellalander was " induced to dis- 
trust " once more. On the day on which Mackenzie 
sent this telegram about the flag, he had received 
Robinson's message of July 30th, inviting him to 
" visit Cape Town," and appointing Mr Cecil Rhodes 
to take his place. That was the end of John Mackenzie's 
service of his Queen as Deputy Commissioner. He was 
not unprepared for this event, for even while carrying 
on his work as successfully as we have seen, his corre- 



340 JOHN MACKENZIE 

spondence with Government House, Cape Town, had 
shown him that hostile forces were gradually gaining 
the upper hand there, forces which openly sought his 
overthrow, but really aimed at other political and 
personal objects beyond himself He was in the way 
of land schemes and Boer schemes. The land schemers 
were many of them well-known British subjects, but 
they were willing to work with citizens of the Transvaal 
to defeat an Imperial officer, and hinder Imperial de- 
velopments in Bechuanaland. The Boer schemers were 
well-known at Pretoria and Cape Town to cherish the 
purpose of extending the South African Republic over 
the territory now proclaimed as a British Protectorate ; 
and they saw that if Mackenzie continued in Bechuana- 
land their dreams must perish. These two sets of men 
united their influence in Bechuanaland and at Cape 
Town to " eliminate," as Mr Rhodes openly confessed 
it, " eliminate the Imperial factor." How they tried this 
and succeeded, we must now see. 

When Mackenzie went north from Cape Town in 
April, he felt himself in perfect accord with Sir Hercules 
Robinson regarding the general policy which he was to 
pursue. It was understood that he would require 200 
police to maintain order in Bechuanaland, and Robin- 
son approved the appointment of Major Stanley Lowe 
to enrol and organise this force. Weeks were allowed 
to pass during which the enrolment of police went 
on slowly, being hindered partly by the general 
uncertainty regarding the real attitude of the respec- 
tive governments to one another and to Bechuana- 
land, and partly by obstacles cast in the way of Major 
Lowe from Cape Town. No real vigorous measures 
were taken to assist Mackenzie and his chief officer in 
this work. 

In the month of April the letters of Robinson show 
him cordial to his Deputy Commissioner. He refers to 
the proposal for the annexation of Bechuanaland to 



AS DEPUTY COMMISSIONER 341 

Cape Colony, and confesses that this may be the best 
solution of their troubles. He looks forward, however, 
to Mackenzie's expected visit to Cape Town, upon 
which they had agreed. This visit was to be made 
immediately after Mackenzie had completed his first 
survey of his territory in order to discuss the 
whole situation and map out the details with his 
chief In one of these letters he says, " You may 
rely, under any circumstances, upon my fullest 
confidence and support." In May he writes with 
enthusiasm concerning what he calls Mackenzie's 
" complete success at Vryburg " ; he thinks that 
Mackenzie " acted wisely in swallowing Mr Niekerk " ; 
likewise was he pleased with the work done at 
Taungs ; Robinson added that he was " sure that 
Lord Derby and the Colonial Office will be very 
pleased at the way you have got over the two out 
of your three difficulties." On May 25, he writes 
again, saying, that he expected Mackenzie to be at 
that time " about to start for Cape Town." In this 
letter the first difficulty is raised regarding the cost 
of the police force which had been promised to 
Mackenzie, and without which he would never have 
undertaken this task. 

We estimate that the 50 police you ask for will cost 
annually about ;^i2oo, and the equipment at starting about 
^5000 more. Have you considered where all this money 
is to come from, especially if the Stellalanders won't pay for 
Police, as the papers seem to indicate ? However, I shall be 
able to go into this matter with you soon when you get 
down here. 

On the 1 6th of June, Robinson is still convinced of 
Mackenzie's remarkable success. 

"I was," he says, "very glad to receive yours of the 31st 
May from Mafeking, and delighted to find that you got on 
so much better with the Goshenites than I anticipated. I 
am pressing the Transvaal Government to come down on 



342 JOHN MACKENZIE 

that nest of ruffians who have established themselves just 
within the Transvaal border." 

In this letter he further refers to the fact that Mr 
Niekerk was corresponding with persons at Cape 
Town, and saying that the Stellalander people were 
violently opposed to Mackenzie's protectorate or terri- 
torial form of government. This leads him to refer to 
the political situation at Cape Town ; 

" My new ministry is not strong, and it is possible there may 
be another crisis before the next Session. I have not been 
able to get any decision out of them yet as to what course 
they will take. . . . They are apparently waiting to get their 
orders from Mr Hofmeyr, and he is probably waiting for the 
arrival of the Transvaal delegates here from London." He 
repeats his invitation that Mackenzie should stay at Govern- 
ment House on his arrival. 

Robinson evidently was being pressed to change 
his judgment by setting Niekerk's letters and views 
over against those of Mackenzie's. 

At this time Mackenzie, feeling desperate over the 
absence of police from Bechuanaland, sent several 
different proposals to Robinson. One of these sug- 
gested the formation of a South African volunteer 
force ; another suggested that Cape Colony, as being 
the ultimate heirs of Bechuanaland, ought to lend the 
Imperial Government lOO volunteers for the purpose 
of settling the country. In connection with these 
proposals Robinson wrote a letter in the first week of 
July, which showed a distinct cooling-ofif in its most 
curt phraseology and imperative tones ; he lays aside 
the scheme of a reserve force as impracticable, and 
then adds the following unexpected words : — 

I hope by this time you are on your way back to Mont- 
sioa's ; there is nothing whatever to be gained by your visit- 
ing Cape Town at present ; and it is desirable that you should 
be in the neighbourhood of Rooi Grond whilst the free- 



AS DEPUTY COMMISSIONER 343 

hooters who are living there just within the Transvaal 
border are making attacks upon the protectorate. 

The Blue Books show^ that Mackenzie in a telegram 
of this date suggests that there was still much reason 
for his visiting Cape Town, and he adds : " There are 
too many pressing duties in Bechuanaland for me to 
be shut up in Mafeking if it is invested ; your state- 
ment about public opinion at the Cape makes me feel 
the greater necessity for being there." To this, on 
July 6th the High Commissioner curtly replied : — 

I can see nothing to be gained by your coming to Cape 
Town at this moment, and I must repeat that whilst the 
country is in this its present state you should remain at your 
post." 1 

At the same time the High Commissioner gave 
Mackenzie authority to raise a force of police and 
burghers, to deal with marauders, and said that 
Lord Derby had telegraphed the approval of H.M.'s 
Government. The absurdity of this proposal lies on 
the face of it ; but Robinson, now blind to the facts of 
Mackenzie's position, says, " I am anxious you should 
realise that you have to depend on what you can do 
locally." 

About this time President Kruger and his fellow- 
delegates arrived at Cape Town from their European 
tour. Robinson reported to Mackenzie that they 
conferred with Mr Hofmeyr, the leader of the Bond, 
and with the Ministers, of whom Sir Thomas Upington 
was now Prime Minister. They arrived at the conclu- 
sion, the Imperial High Commissioner reports to his 
Deputy, 

that it was better for the Transvaal to have the Colonies as a 
neighbour than the Imperial Government, and that Com 
Paul promised, that if the Colonies would take over the place 

1 C— 4194, pp. 74, 78, 79. 



344 JOHN MACKENZIE 

and you were withdrawn, he would use his best exertions to 
insure the Rooi Gronders dispersing to their homes. 

In the letter which gives this information, dated 
July 1 8th, the High Commissioner for South Africa 
goes on at length to describe the pressure which was 
being brought to bear upon him for the removal of 
Mackenzie from his office. He piteously complains 
that he stands absolutely alone in advocating his 
appointment. " I need scarcely say," he adds, " that 
this is almost as disappointing and annoying to me as 
you, but it is a fact, and there is nothing to be gained 
by shutting our eyes to it." 

A definite policy was now agreed upon between Mr 
Kruger, the Cape Dutch Party, and the Colonial 
Government, and it centered in one immediate object, 
namely, the removal of Mackenzie. The next step 
was naturally left indefinite, Mr Kruger allowing Mr 
Upington to think that it would be a peaceful annexa- 
tion of Goshen and Stellaland to the Cape Colony 
But Mr Kruger went home to Pretoria, and from his 
place in the Volksraad denounced the very convention 
under which this annexation was to take place. 

In the parliamentary discussion, both Mr Upington 
and Mr Cecil Rhodes, in advocating the annexation 
to the Colony, denounced Mackenzie as the one 
obstacle to a peaceful settlement of Bechuanaland.^ 
Mr Rhodes, in this debate, relied for his information 
upon letters which he quoted, and which he had 
received from Niekerk ! 

On July 28th, Robinson wrote another long letter 
to Mackenzie, concerning the determination of the 
Cape Ministry to get rid of him. The High 
Commissioner's supreme interest at this time was 
divided between, either securing the annexation of 
Bechuanaland to Cape Colony, or obtaining a money 

^ For report of debate. C. — 4194, pp. 85-105. 



AS DEPUTY COMMISSIONER 345 

grant from the Colony towards the expenses of the 
protectorate. His ministers saw their advantage, and 
refused to consider either proposal as long as Mackenzie 
held his post. He says in this letter, " Mr Upington 
added that the only prospect of settling Bechuana- 
land was the cordial co-operation between Cape 
Colony and the Transvaal, in the work. The 
Transvaal Government, he was aware, would give no 
real help so long as you are in charge." Sir Hercules 
strove " to save his face," by proposing that the 
Colonial Government should nominate some one to act 
as coadjutor with Mackenzie. This, of course, was 
also declined. At the same time, he refused to allow 
Mackenzie any money for his work from the Imperial 
funds, and warned him further not to think of fighting 
one half of the Stellalanders with the other half, as 
Mr Upington, forsooth, had imagined that Mackenzie 
would do this. Sir Hercules Robinson also referred 
to the scandalous scenes which had just occurred in 
the Transvaal Volksraad, where President Kruger, 
from his place in the House, denounced Robinson 
and Mackenzie in the same breath, as " liars " and 
" intriguers," and asserted that, because they had 
deceived the British public and the British Govern- 
ment, the Transvaal had lost Bechuanaland. 

Before this letter was written Mr Rhodes had 
already left Cape Town for Kimberley. After his 
arrival there a series of telegrams passed between him 
and Captain Bower, the Imperial Secretary, which 
have been published in the Blue Books.^ It was only 
when he saw these telegrams in print that Mackenzie 
discovered the true facts regarding his recall and Mr 
Rhodes's appointment. They clearly show that when 
Mr Rhodes left Cape Town there was a general under- 
standing between him and the High Commissioner, 
and the Imperial Secretary, regarding the immediate 

1 C— 4213, pp. 15 ff. 



346 JOHN MACKENZIE 

future. On July 25th, Captain Bower received a 
telegram from Mr Rhodes saying that Niekerk and 
Co. threatened to use violence against Mackenzie and 
his sympathisers. For this information the Imperial 
Secretary sent thanks, and asked for more " light on 
the situation." On the 29th, Mr Rhodes was asked, 
" Can you leave at short notice for Bechuanaland, if 
required ? " On the same date Mr Rhodes announced 
that there had been a " row at Vryburg, on the attempt 
to hoist the British flag." He criticised Mackenzie's 
actions and said, " the feeling in Stellaland is only 
anti-Mackenzie." Mr Rhodes was only at Kimberley, 
and dependent for his information upon rumours and 
the evidence of interested parties, but, he added : " I 
have gained, I think, a fair knowledge of the situation ; 
please reply and tell me position on your side, and 
what you wish me to do." Captain Bower replied 
that Robinson proposed 

to give Mackenzie leave to come down here for purpose of 
conferring with him, and to ask you to go to Vryburg and 
act for Mackenzie in his absence. Do you think this course 
desirable, and do you consent, or do you think that Mackenzie 
can be safely left in Stellaland ? 

The next day Mr Rhodes flashed back his answer : 

I consider Mackenzie's presence at Vryburg likely to 
cause disturbance. He is opposed by large party. Am 
willing to proceed on understanding if I get matters quiet, 
and I think his return likely cause strife ; due weight to be 
given to my opinion. 

Mr Rhodes was told that the Governor accepted 
his offer with thanks, and his commission was tele- 
graphed the same day. On July 31st, Mackenzie, 
all unaware of these sinister " wires," sent the announce- 
ment of his brilliant success in Stellaland, and of the 
passing of the resolutions by the assembled inhabitants. 



AS DEPUTY COMMISSIONER 347 

which we have described above. On this Captain 
Bower wired Mr Rhodes : — 

Mackenzie telegraphs that things in Stellaland are satis- 
factory. Either he is Hving in a fool's paradise, or recent 
reports are very misleading. 

At the same time Mackenzie was informed of 
Robinson's desire that he should go to Cape Town, 
and of the appointment of Mr Rhodes to act for him 
in his absence. Captain Bower's telegram means 
simply that Mackenzie was being recalled, irrespective 
of the questions as to whether he had succeeded or 
not, as to whether his official report from the scene of 
action, or Mr Rhodes's rumours from Kimberley were 
to be trusted at Cape Town. The fact stands indisput- 
able, that Robinson's conduct was based first upon the 
hostility of his ministers, which he knew to be created 
by the Transvaal ; and, second, upon rumours which 
contradicted the official reports of his Deputy 
Commissioner, and which were sent to him by Mr 
Rhodes. The telegrams also show that Mr Rhodes, 
without being upon the spot or making a judicial inquiry 
into these false rumours, advised the removal of an 
Imperial officer that he himself might take his 
place. 

When Mackenzie reached Cape Town he found 
himself in the centre of storms. After a few days 
he decided to send in his resignation. This step was 
taken while he was fully conscious of his own success 
in Bechuanaland, but while he was yet unaware of 
the telegrams and misrepresentations which have 
been sketched above. It was taken because the 
Cape Ministry believed they could easily reduce 
Bechuanaland to order, and he would not have it 
felt that he stood in the way. His motives and 
spirit are expressed in the following letter : — 



348 JOHN MACKENZIE 

Government House, 
Cape Town, 3^^ Aug. 1884. 

My Dear Dr Dale, — Your warm interest in the Bechu- 
analand question induces me to send you the text of my 
letter of resignation, and the documents which the High 
Commissioner, at my request, produced on the occasion. 

My first impulse was of course not to resign ; but in the 
circumstances, and wishing myself also to test the sincerity of 
the utterances of the Cape Ministry, I sent in the enclosed 
letter. They are not touching Bechuanaland a bit more since 
I resigned than they were before. 

The political situation here in Cape Town is most unhappy 
— nay, it is even dangerous ; and you know I am no alarmist. 
Let me explain what I know of it, of course in strictest 
confidence. 

In the first place, relations of present ministry and the 
High Commissioner are very much strained. I found it so. 
I have been, since I arrived here, a go-between as to the 
Bechuanaland affair, and there is a slightly better state of 
things. But there is no love lost on either side. 

On asking Sprigg and Upington why they had not sup- 
ported Scanlen's undertaking for co-operation with English 
Government, they gave first the published reasons — indefinite 
responsibility, etc. ; but on being pressed, they both said, or, 
rather, shouted — "We don't believe in the English Govern- 
ment. We are Liberals, both of us, but the Colonial Policy 
of the present Government is rotten and detestable. They 
would leave us in the lurch on the first convenient opportunity. 
We should have to face the opposition of the Dutch here, and 
would probably get turned out ; but what we are sure of is, 
that if we co-operated as you desire us, and sent up officers 
now into Bechuanaland to make preparations for annexation, 
or lent Cape Mounted Rifles to protect Cape Colonists in 
Stellaland who signed the petition for annexation, — there is 
nothing clearer to our minds than that in the briefest time we 
should find ourselves alone in Bechuanaland, deserted by 
the Imperial Government." 

You can scarcely imagine the vehemence with which these 
things are said. Their minds are exceedingly embittered 
against Her Majesty's Government. All the while, as they 
declare, their personal sentiments are similar to your own ! 
His Excellency is good enough to place great confidence 



AS DEPUTY COMMISSIONER 349 

in me, in suggesting that I go and talk with them, and in 
formally sending me on matters of business ; but it is uphill 
work. 

And the worst is not told. These men — our own fellow- 
countrymen — only hold their present position on sufferance. 
Mr Hofmeyr and the Dutch party support them, and there- 
fore they stand. They are paying most disastrously dear for 
this support. It is said everything is submitted to Hofmeyr 
in secret conclave, and ministers get what are practically 
orders. Was a country ever in such an unhappy situation ? 
It is explained to me by those who know, that Hofmeyr dared 
not accept the responsibility of forming a ministry when the 
Government sent for him to do so. His own followers do 
not supply material out of which ministers could be made, 
on account of their sheer ignorance. But in their own 
opinion they are fully qualified, and would resent being 
passed over. Therefore the astute Hofmeyr declines the 
Premiership virtually because he shrinks from appointing 
English ministers under him, over the heads of his own 
peculiar people. 

I asked His Excellency, as a favour, to wire the last two 
paragraphs of my letter to the Colonial Office, in order that 
the peculiar, unusual, I might almost say unique, situation 
might be understood. He did not consent to this. 

The news comes in that Bechuanaland is well-nigh in the 
hands of the Boers. 

Joubert's selection by the Transvaal Government, after 
his speech and known proclivities, was not polite to the 
Imperial Government, nor was it in the way of a friendly 
settlement. 



Sept. 23. — One thing and another have prevented me from 
finishing this and sending it off. 

My resignation has been accepted, and I am now adrift. I 
do not know my future. I am deeply interested in this ques- 
tion, and a great deal has to be done here. But how to do 
it, and also earn daily bread, &c., for myself and family, are 
questions not yet solved. I have no disinclination, thank 
God, to resume mission work, but my successors have made, 
and are making such a frightful mess there, that really it would 
not be advisable for me to go back to Bechuanaland just now. 

I have now left Government House, and have taken rooms 



3 50 JOHN MACKENZIE 

for a short time here. There will be a public meeting here 
to-morrow night. 

The action of Germany has acted as a tonic to the sluggish 
dullards here. Four papers here are practically of one opinion : 
The Argus ^ Times ^ Express, and Volksblad. The Zuid Afrikaan 
openly advocates freebooting, looting, and serfdom. It is in 
Dutch entirely, otherwise I would send you copies. The 
papers insisted that I must speak at the meeting. I went to 
the preparatory meetings to-day. I was well received. But 
in the interval some one had expressed a doubt whether it 
would be wise that I should speak. I came in while they 
were discussing this. This gives you an idea of the position 
here ; the meeting is to some extent the result of doctrines 
which I have been teaching since I came here. They all say 
they would like to hear me ; but what about the Dutch 
opposition ? 

I said I was no judge whether I should speak or not ; I 
dared say there would be enough without me. When this 
would not do, I added, " I suppose you want to know whether 
I am going to set you all at loggerheads by what I say. If 
that is the anxiety of those who don't know me, I have the 
happiness to relieve it at once ; you may rest quietly in your 
minds so far as my speech is concerned." Such is my stand- 
ing here to-day. Queer, isn't it ? If I can do something 
towards healthy speech and clear understanding between 
Dutch and English, I shall do something. I feel my 
mind going with this question ; I should like to serve 
a high cause in this Colony ; perhaps the way may be 
opened up. 

In the meantime don't despair. It is enough to be cast 
down ; I do not feel like that. But despair, and your cause 
the right one? No, by no means. Dear Mary, my little 
daughter, wrote to me lately, " Papa, I am praying so hard 
for you." I have got the conviction Mary is not alone in 
doing this. Let us wait and work, hoping in God. Give me 
a line. — Ever yours sincerely, 

John Mackenzie. 

To Mr Stead he vv^rote a letter on October ist, in 
which the follovi^ing paragraphs occur : — 

It is no small gratification to me to be able to preach in 
Cape Town the doctrines which I preached in England, and 



AS DEPUTY COMMISSIONER 351 

to find that they are cordially accepted. My own reception 
has been more than I had reason to expect, considering 
the censure which was heaped upon me. It is only one 
form of resenting the conduct of their political leaders 
on the part of this community. They have spoken out for 
themselves. 

The real cause of failure in Bechuanaland is the hostile 
attitude of the Transvaal. This was pointed out by me re- 
peatedly, with the remark that it was a question for the High 
Commissioner and the Home Government, and not for me 
with a few policemen. It will be shown that Sir H. had 
Lord Derby's express sanction to repel the invasion of Mont- 
sioa's country months ago, but did nothing but urge me to 
go back again personally and try personal persuasion. When 
I came to Cape Town Sir H. had not done anything with 
Lord Derby's sanction, but was trying in reality to throw the 
onus on the Cape Colony, I say so, as I was the go-between 
the parties for weeks; and the negotiations stuck with 
the blunt question of Upington, " What do you mean 
then by co-operation? Define what England will do, and 
what you expect the Cape Colony to do." Sir H. pooh- 
poohed this then, and did not so define. 

Now, dear Mr Stead, don't be angry with me for writing 
all this. I am in a queer fix. Don't know where to turn, 
have been really checked and tripped up by knaves or 
fools or both. What I write is in confidence. But don't 

trust M one bit, nor H , if you come across them. 

Scanlen is nice, and I think trust- 
worthy, but don't betray my con- 
fidences to him. The others are 
his lieutenants. 



LAND 



[In the original letter " Land," written in large letters, fills up 
the vacant space, as above.] 



CHAPTER XIII 

AFRICA THE ROUSING OF THE CAPE COLONY 

(1884-1885) 

It will be unnecessary to tell in detail the story of 
Bechuanaland under Mr Rhodes's Commissionership 
during the months of August, September, and 
October 1884. But something must be said in 
order to explain still later events. 

When Mackenzie resigned it was with the feeling, 
as he said once, shrugging his shoulders, " If these 
other fellows think they can manage the business, 
well, let them try it." Mr Cecil Rhodes made the 
first attempt. He went straight to Vryburg, and sent 
his first message from there on August 7th. He 
found what he called the " town section " very favour- 
able to Mackenzie, and confessed that they were very 
bitter against himself. The reason for this bitterness 
lay in the fact that he had announced his resolve 
against Mackenzie's advice, to negotiate with Niekerk. 
The Vryburg population, since Mackenzie's last visit 
and the formation of a settled government under him, 
had viewed with great resentment the recent history 
of Niekerk's relations to them ; and the idea that the 
new Deputy Commissioner should deal with Niekerk 
as in any measure responsible for that portion of 
British territory, awoke their intense hostility. But 
Mr Cecil Rhodes persisted in his policy. He left a 
loyal Stellaland behind him, ready to promote peace 
and to resist the aggressions of outsiders, and crossed 
352 



THE ROUSING OF CAPE COLONY 353 

the border to negotiate with an avowed enemy of 
the Queen for the maintenance of peace in Her 
Protectorate. 

It is impossible for any student of these events to 
fathom Mr Rhodes's real reasons for this extraordinary 
step. An approach to a reason is given by him,^ and 
is echoed by Captain Bower, in the suggestion that it 
was necessary to pacify Stellaland in order to use it 
as a basis for pacifying Goshen. If this was the real 
purpose it exposes the statesmanship of both these 
gentlemen to the severest criticism from another 
point of view. 

When Mr Rhodes reached Commando Drift, where 
Niekerk and his people were assembled, he found 
them, he said, " exceedingly embittered against Mr 
Mackenzie, and the section in Vryburg, who had 
accepted his government." ^ Their bitterness is not 
in the least unintelligible ; it is only extraordinary that 
Mr Rhodes should have taken steps to give up the 
loyalists in Vryburg to its pitiless cruelty. He knew 
that these people were assembling to reinstate the 
government which Mackenzie had destroyed ; that is, 
to treat Stellaland as if it had never been proclaimed 
a British Protectorate, and as if no British officers had 
assumed authority within it. And he set himself 
avowedly to help them. 

After some preliminary arrangements Mr Rhodes 
left for Goshen, summoning Captain Bower from Cape 
Town to carry on affairs in Stellaland during his 
absence. 

On his way to Goshen, Mr Cecil Rhodes heard that 
the Transvaal Government, in response to the High 
Commissioner, had appointed General Piet Joubert as 
a Special Commissioner, to assist him in pacifying the 
western border of that country. Mr Rhodes and 
1 C— 4213, p. 41. 2 c _^4 4213, p. 105. 

z 



354 JOHN MACKENZIE 

General Joubert met at Goshen, on the Transvaal side, 
and proceeded to negotiate with Van Pittius. Mr 
Rhodes received nothing but insult of the most 
studied kind, while he was there. The Boers actually 
attacked Mafeking, on the night of his arrival at their 
camp. Yet he remained within the Transvaal, did 
not enter Mafeking, had no dealings with Montsioa, 
whom he was sent to protect and deliver, — except 
through some messengers who stole up to his waggon 
at night, — broke off negotiations when he found that 
the Goshenites gave no sign of yielding to his authority, 
and that Joubert was either powerless or unwilling to 
assist him. 

On his leaving, poor Montsioa found himself com- 
pelled to agree to a " treaty " of the most unjust kind 
— so unjust that Mr Rhodes could not tolerate it. 
These events opened his eyes to the fact, as he 
reported to Robinson, that the Transvaal was tacitly 
allowing these proceedings, and that Joubert was not 
in the least anxious to put down the disorder. 

Yet Mr Rhodes returned through the Transvaal to 
Commando Drift, within the Transvaal, and there 
resumed his negotiations with Mr Niekerk, a Transvaal 
citizen, regarding the further destiny of the British 
Protectorate in South Bechuanaland. He found that 
Captain Bower had come to this region, during his 
absence in the north. Two steps of great significance 
had already been taken by the Captain. In his 
anxiety lest the British flag at Vryburg should be 
insulted he sent it away to Taungs. The Stellaland 
flag, which Mackenzie had received from the hands of || 
the Stellalanders themselves, and taken to Cape Town, 
Captain Bower brought back ; and this he handed over 
once more, not to the British in Vryburg, but to Mr 
Niekerk in the Transvaal. From Vryburg he sent 
messages to Cape Town, which deliberately aimed at 



< 



THE ROUSING OF CAPE COLONY 355 

disparaging Mr Mackenzie's work and influence in 
that place. 

Within a few days four members of the Volks 
Committee sent a telegram to Mackenzie, saying that 
they deemed it 

advisable that you return speedily to Vryburg and the 
Bechuanaland. Majority of public approve of your policy, 
Rhodes appears only working for Colonial interest, regardless 
of position of country. Think you could effect peaceable 
settlement. General regret at your absence during present 
complications. Rhodes went alone to Niekerk, in Transvaal, 
to consult him. Public sentiment here worked upon against 
Imperial Government ; especially yourself and Vryburg 
opinion ignored. Statement made that you do not return. 
Please reply. 

This message abundantly proves that even after the 
visits of both Mr Rhodes and Captain Bower, the in- 
habitants of British Stellaland felt themselves strong 
enough, and united enough, to maintain their alle- 
giance to the Imperial Government. Nevertheless, on 
September 8th, at Commando Drift, Mr Rhodes 
agreed to terms of peace, dictated to him by Niekerk. 
A strange fact is that this agreement was telegraphed 
in a mutilated form to Cape Town, and from there 
to London, and was approved in London before all its 
contents were known. 

The very first article stated, " That all transactions entered 
into between Mackenzie and the Volks Committee, and the 
proclamations issued by him, be cancelled " ; that is to say, 
the very acts which Mackenzie carried out under his com- 
mission, and for which he was sent to Africa by Lord Derby, 
were recalled in this manner, and at this time. The second 
article stated that " pending negotiations with the Cape 
Colony, Stellaland should continue its own government, 
recognizing, however. Her Majesty's Protectorate, and sub- 
ject to the conditions that all executive acts must be taken 
in concert and with the consent of the Commissioner for the 



356 JOHN MACKENZIE 

Bechuanaland." The third article promised recognition of 
the land titles issued by the Government of Stellaland — a 
portion of the agreement which no doubt conceals much, and 
which gave much trouble later. 

The fifth article was, however, the most extraordinary of 
all. It postponed the authority of the second article for three 
months, which simply meant that the Stellaland Government, 
as it was established before Mackenzie reached the country, 
was to be restored and maintained with the approval of the 
British Government for three months longer. 

The logical sequel to these events occurred when, on 
September i8th, Niekerk and his party rode suddenly 
into Vryburg, taking possession of the town and the 
Government offices, and establishing themselves in 
power over the territory from which they had de- 
parted four months before, and over the inhabitants 
who had sworn allegiance to the Queen. 

One need not dwell upon the feelings of disgust and 
chagrin that seized the loyalist people in Stellaland, 
many of whom fled for safety. These feelings spread 
gradually over all South Africa, as the full facts of the 
case entered the public mind. 



Mackenzie's resignation, which was telegraphed to 
London (August 9th), was not accepted by Lord 
Derby until September 1 8th. During that period 
he stayed at Government House, in constant inter- 
course with Robinson. It is one of the curious facts 
which his unselfish spirit brought about, that he was 
then actually used by Robinson as a means of com- 
munication with the Cape Ministers who had demanded 
his recall ; his intercourse with them was frequent and 
friendly, just because he determined that his main work 
in life was not to promote his own interests or resent 
a personal defeat, but to secure the triumph of a 
beneficent public policy in South Africa. His spirit 



THE ROUSING OF CAPE COLONY 357 

and some of his work are reflected in a long letter 

to his wife, from which the following extracts are 

made : — 

Government House, 
Cape Town, 2\st Au^. 1884. 

Dearest, — You may be sure my time has been very much 
occupied since I came here. My last letter would show you 
that I had to do real work for the good of Bechuanaland so 
far, and to prevent what I believe would have been grave 
mistakes. 

I found, when I came down, this doctrine : " We join and 
stick to the majority in Stellaland. We doubt if you have 
the majority ; Rhodes will go and see ; and if not then he will 
join Niekerk." . . . 

In my humble opinion we are assisting as fast as we can in 
joining Stellaland to the Transvaal, and the only people who 
realize the situation are Messrs Hofmeyr, Niekerk, De la Rey 
and that ilk, Sprigg and Upington gracefully following in their 
train, whether blindly or with their eyes open, who knows ? 
The appointment of Rhodes was a good one, if he had at 
once gone on to Rooi Grond, as I strongly advised both the 
High Commissioner and himself. Mr Bower also might have 
done good at Vryburg by upholding what had been accom- 
plished. Unless we are to suppose that the Transvaal will 
refuse to restrain its burghers in the Hart River District, 
Mr Bower's position would have been secure enough at 
Vryburg. The Transvaal would never have attacked Bower 
at Vryburg, even with what support I had. If the Transvaal 
mean to have Bechuanaland we need not meet them half-way 
and help them to walk over the course. 

A few days ago I had an interview with Mr Sprigg and 
Mr Upington. I have not time to recall all that passed. I 
stated my views of the situation clearly, and charged them 
with having thrown away a golden opportunity for securing 
the co-operation of England with the Cape Colony. 

My advice to them was — " Here are a number of men who 
have signed a requisition to the Cape Colony. There is a 
dispute among them. The one party annuls the doings of 
the other. I called them all together, seeking union among 
them, but one side did not come. That side does not want 
Imperial Government and does not want Colonial Govern- 



358 JOHN MACKENZIE 

ment, although it professes to do so. It is working for the 
Transvaal. These people threaten those who have accepted 
office under the Imperial Government with ' pains and 
penalties.' " 

" Well, it is the duty of the Imperial Government to 
protect them." 

" No doubt, but England undertook this in co-operation 
with the Cape Colony. You also have obligations ; these 
people have asked for annexation ; you have passed a resolu- 
tion favourable to annexation. But in the meantime the 
country is in danger of passing into the hands of the Trans- 
vaal all the same. Niekerk is working for this ; Joubert will 
of course ask for this. Who works against it ? The Imperial 
Government, if you work with it. . . . Refrain to act, and I 
am afraid Bechuanaland is gone for ever, and becomes part of 
the Transvaal ; for I am told the Imperial Government will 
not do the work by itself. Then you are doomed to a second- 
rate position. And why, from your point of view, should you 
be excused from anxiety? I know about the duties of a 
central or supreme power. But England has a right to 
expect your co-operation, and if she had it, she would, along 
with you, settle not only this, but every other South African 
question." 

(Sprigg) " Yes, say she would do so ; get us to begin, and 
then leave us in the lurch. She did so before." 

" I assure you England would not leave the Cape Colony in 
the lurch if she were assisted by the Colony in Bechuanaland. 
There are too many reasons pointing the other way. A 
considerable change and improvement took place in people's 
views about the Colony when I was at home. I am afraid 
by refusing your co-operation you have dashed all this to the 
ground." 

" We can't trust the English Government. If we could 
trust them that would be one thing. We are afraid to trust 
them." 

" You are wrong in your distrust. They would act with 
you to their last penny. But if you want to save Bechuana- 
land for the Cape, send your officer and men at once, having 
of course obtained the High Commissioner's sanction." 

A great deal more was said, of course. I made some im- 
pression. They both declared with passion that their wishes 
and mine were the same. I think their distrust of the Home 



1 



THE ROUSING OF CAPE COLONY 359 

Government genuine; perhaps mixed a little with spite 
in the case of Mr Sprigg, at his treatment in the matter of 
Bechuanaland. 

I was so convinced that things were going to be on a 
wrong track, that I wrote a private memorandum to His 
Excellency requesting that the Government at Vryburg 
should be taken up by Capt. Bower, and that he should 
not merely wait on Niekerk. Sir Hercules was pleased to 
say that what I then wrote had modified his instructions to 
Mr Bower. 

I trust on every account that these men will have success ; 
but I confess I don't see how it is to come about. The same 
power that is supreme in Niekerk's and Joubert's Councils is 
supreme in the Cape Ministry and Parliament ; and yet not 
responsible; for Englishmen have been found who are content 
to be figureheads to a craft with a Dutch-speaking captain who 
never appears on deck. 

My own resignation is now on its way to London. The 
telegraphic announcement is already there. Sir H. proposes 
advance of three months' pay when connection is severed. 
Sir Hercules declares I am taking it more coolly than he does. 
He is very kind. There will be a delay of about a week. I 
intend to visit some friends. Of course there are a few who 
will be courageous enough to have me. What are we going 
to do next ? How employ the afternoon of life and open a 
home for our children ? May the Guide of our past lives be 
with us still ! Love to the children. Hope Franklin enjoys 
himself. — Ever, 

John Mackenzie. 

As soon as his resignation was accepted, he went 
into private lodgings. He was deeply disappointed, 
of course, at the position in which he found himself, 
but his disappointment was increased when he 
gradually discovered the forces which had produced 
this result. Undaunted, however, he set himself to 
work for the cause which he had at heart, and for 
which he had given up his earlier career. He found 
himself very speedily in the midst of warm friends, 
and their number and their warmth increased as they 



36o JOHN MACKENZIE 

became familiar with his political teachings and his 
personal spirit. He was invited to occupy the pulpit 
of the Congregational Church at Claremont, a suburb 
of Cape Town. This necessitated only his preaching 
on Sundays, and left him the entire week for the huge 
mass of correspondence in which he soon found himself 
involved. 

Just eight days after Mr Rhodes's arrangement 
with Niekerk, which was dated September 8th, the 
startling announcement was telegraphed from Pretoria 
to London that the Transvaal, " being implored by 
Montsioa, had annexed his territory." Sir Hercules 
Robinson at once replied " that this was simply the 
annexation by the Transvaal of about one half of 
the British Protectorate, and was an open and 
defiant violation of the Convention." No doubt 
this matter was very clumsily managed, as a 
Transvaal official at a later date confessed. 
President Kruger would have had more chance of 
success if he had waited somewhat longer. No 
doubt, also, this act may be called treacherous. 
But in all fairness to the Transvaal it ought to be 
recognised that their treachery was the logical 
outcome of British unfaithfulness to an announced 
British policy. This may seem a strange assertion, 
but the facts of the case thoroughly support it. 
Mackenzie had been sent to proclaim a British 
Protectorate over Montsioa and Mankoroane ; yet 
Robinson, who sent him, would give neither money 
nor men to establish a police force which should 
make the Protectorate effective. The High Com- 
missioner became involved in discussions, both with 
his ministers in Cape Town and with his Deputy 
Commissioner in Bechuanaland, which showed his 
weakness and unwillingness to act ; every breath 
of these discussions was as well known in Pretoria 



THE ROUSING OF CAPE COLONY 361 

as in Cape Town. Further, every grown man in 
South Africa knew that the Transvaal was the 
base of operations for the marauders in Stellaland 
and Goshen, that it was the home of Niekerk 
and Pittius ; everyone knew that the leading news- 
paper in Pretoria published reports of their acts, 
that it was as much their official organ as it 
was the official organ of the Transvaal Govern- 
ment. 

Notwithstanding these facts, a high-placed British 
officer seriously proposed that Bechuanaland should 
be settled by the co-operation of the Transvaal 
with Cape Colony ! Still further, the Transvaal 
Government, knowing Mackenzie — his power over 
the natives as well as over white men, and his 
strong determination that the Imperial Government 
should rule in fact as well as in name — demanded 
his recall through its allies in Cape Town and by 
direct appeals to the High Commissioner. Not only 
is he recalled and his resignation accepted ; his 
successor actually goes into Stellaland and, with 
his eyes open, deliberately hands back the Govern- 
ment of a British Protectorate to Niekerk, a citizen 
of the Transvaal, and his companions. He more- 
over, formally renounces all the acts and pro- 
clamations of his predecessor. It was surely open 
to Mr Kruger to ask himself. If Stellaland is thus 
given back, what can Britain possibly do with and 
for Montsioa so much further north ? The only 
reason why all this insensate folly and weakness 
does not excuse the treachery of the Transvaal is 
that the latter preceded as well as followed those 
acts. It was not until October 14th that Mr 
Niekerk took the next step which, if it had been 
carried through, would have been only the further 
logical outcome of all that went before : for he drew 



362 JOHN MACKENZIE 

up a petition to be signed by the burghers of 
Stellaland reciting to himself the failure of the 
negotiations for annexation to Cape Colony, and 
proposing to him that negotiations be forthwith 
opened for annexation to the Transvaal ! 

In the meantime, in Cape Town and elsewhere 
throughout the Colony, the tide of indignation against 
the weakness of the Imperial Administration was 
steadily rising ; it took shape first of all in a great 
public meeting held in Exchange Hall, Cape Town, 
on September 24th. Mackenzie had been invited 
to the preparatory meeting, as he explained to Dr 
Dale in the letter quoted above, and was, of course, 
invited to be one of the speakers. A most eloquent 
and thrilling speech was made by the Hon. J. W. 
Leonard, Q.C., in which he defended Mackenzie's 
commissionership. When the latter rose to give his 
address, he and everyone else were amazed at the 
enthusiasm with which the great assembly welcomed 
him. He studiously avoided personalities in his 
speech, which the Cape Times described as " a plain 
unvarnished tale, using a simplicity and directness 
of speech that was more telling than any laboured 
eloquence." He went right at the root of the whole 
matter, which was the relation of European races in 
South Africa. He denied that there ought to be 
any divergence of interest between Dutch and English 
in that region. " The real question was. Were they 
to go north with the stain of human blood on their 
hands or were they to go north as Christians, clean- 
handed ? " The last part of his speech dealt with 
the position of responsibility of the Cape Colony ; 
he foresaw its great future if the colonists chose the 
wise policy ; it was for their own interest to see 
that the road into the interior was not blocked by 
Germans from the West or the Transvaal from the 



THE ROUSING OF CAPE COLONY 363 

East ; in order to secure this they must maintain 
their connection with the Imperial Government. 

This meeting awoke enthusiasm all over the 
Colony ; similar gatherings in the leading towns 
passed enthusiastic resolutions in favour of a vigorous 
policy in Bechuanaland. Mackenzie was himself 
summoned to lecture in many of these places ; wher- 
ever he went he maintained the same calm, judicial 
tone, dealing only with fundamental principles, posing 
nowhere as a martyr, and parading his wrongs no- 
where. His speeches were widely reported, some being 
reprinted for circulation. Gatherings were held and 
hostile resolutions were passed by some local branches 
of the Africander Bond ; but their language served 
only to emphasise the need for the movement which 
they tried to check. 

In a letter to his friend. Sir Robert Herbert, the 
Permanent Under Secretary at the Colonial Office, 
Mackenzie describes one of his lectures : — 

I am happy to say that I have so far secured public ap- 
proval here of the Dutch-speaking students of Stellenbosch, 
an intensely Dutch place, where the College of the Dutch 
Church had invited me to lecture to them. I was glad to go. 
My great object was to cope with the movement which im- 
pelled the Ministers. Concealed as it was in the lecture, my 
object was to demonstrate the necessity for Warren^ s going to 
Bechuanaland in any case. If he did not go the Transvaal 
and Cape Colony might find themselves hopelessly at logger- 
heads, for both wanted the same country, and the method 
would not work which some had proposed, viz., that the 
freebooters should choose what government they would come 
under, for the freebooters were divided on this question. 
Thus the presence of a third party — a party with force at its 
command — was absolutely necessary in the interests of peace 
and a common welfare. I am happy to say this produced 
a great impression on my audience. I then directed their 
attention to the advisableness of working for some elementary 
plan of South African co-operation. 



364 JOHN MACKENZIE 

The students cheered my lecture throughout. Dutch-speak- 
ing colonists, farmers and others, thought my proposal for a 
commission under Warren, if adopted, would be the saving 
of the whole country. When I told them that the lecture 
would be translated into Dutch as a pamphlet for extensive 
circulation, they desired that a considerable number should 
be sent to Stellenbosch. 



It was only after I had lived some time in Cape Town, 
that I came to realize how easily you might have been 
slipped out of this country by one stroke after another of 
Dutch " slimness " and cunning, followed by not a very ex- 
alted action by English politicians. Mere fighting will not 
do all that is required. 



My friends here tried to persuade me not to resign, but 
to stand aside and let anyone else try the new policy of 
siding with Niekerk ; and if it failed, to retain my position. 
I took the simpler course. 

Mackenzie published a letter, signed "Jan Bergenaar," 
which received very wide attention, and was circulated 
extensively in pamphlet form. In this letter he further 
developed his idea that there ought to be established 
in South Africa a commission under an Imperial Pre- 
sident, on which there should be representatives from 
every separate South African Government, whose 
functions, to begin with, should be merely advisory ; 
and the members' first task would be to investigate 
and advise upon the Bechuanaland problem. He 
proposed that two members should be elected by the 
Government Ministers of Cape Colony, one by the 
Free State, one by Natal, one by the Transvaal, and 
that one should be appointed by the High Commis- 
sioner and approved by Chiefs, to represent the native 
interests. 

This proposal was much discussed in connection 



THE ROUSING OF CAPE COLONY 365 

with Warren's arrival as Special Commissioner in 
South Africa, and so favourably was it received by 
many of the leading men, that it might easily have 
been carried out had it not been from the beginning 
disapproved by Sir Hercules Robinson. It would 
have been a practical step towards that Confederation 
which in its unpractical forms has been a " will-o'-the- 
wisp " in South African history. But his immediate 
purpose was expressed in the words, " What I am 
working for is to give the Imperial Government some- 
thing to lean on out here." 

To his eldest son he wrote on October 22nd : — 

We had a great excitement here this week. The an- 
nouncement, in the Pall Mall Gazette^ telegraphed by Reuter, 
that Sir Charles Warren was to be sent out to " settle " 
Bechuanaland, gave everybody pleasure here except the evil- 
doers. To myself especially the news was the best I had 
had for some time. . . . The letters from my Stellaland 
friends in the Cape Times show that really some of those 
fellows had got to like me middling well, and also that they 
have some ability. They have not worshipped the rising 
sun. Government Plouse people tried what they could do 
with the editor to get him to refuse their communications ; 
but he has more manly sense of fair play. 

I ought to be gratified as well as thankful for the position 
which I have been able to take up here. The " best people," 
as the saying goes, are very kind, and ask me to their places, 
and seem really interested. ... I am told by reliable 
authority that my views are making headway among the 
Dutch people. I expect this week or next to meet the re- 
doubtable Mr Hofmeyr, the most powerful man in South 
Africa at present ; so some say. It may seem strange that we 
have not met before. ... I have wanted to meet him, but 
did not want to press for it, for really mine is an educative 
work here. I have been doing that every day. I am send- 
ing a copy of my lecture. I am told the Dutch like it ; but 
it has been misapprehended in some quarters — notably in 
Natal. ... I am firing away every Sunday now as a preacher. 
I think I mentioned that they would like me to make an en- 



366 JOHN MACKENZIE 

gagement, for say three months, to supply a little chapel in 
this neighbourhood — ;^3oo per annum. 

Did I mention that they are trying to start a political 
association here, which shall bind the colonists to England, 
and really undo the work of the Africander Bond ? They 
showed me a projected prospectus ; in fact I have seen more 
than one, and have myself supplied one. The thing could 
be done, but some of them are taking the wrong way to do it 
— bawling out their Englishness and the goodness of England 
at the top of their voices. . . . Captain Bower is strong for 
the grandiose style which I was opposing. " I go for the 
Union Jack — that's my motto." And this is to save South 
Africa for England at a crisis in our history ! I have striven 
to impress it on them that our hope is in the respectable 
Dutch people. Some of the English hate me for saying this. 
They would really like to see them soundly thrashed, and 
English notions crammed down their throats whether they 
w^ere willing or not, I said to the Governor and to others 
— " Your hope is in meeting the Dutch and the Africander 
Bond on its own ground and fighting it. This you can do, 
and succeed. By the diffusion of sound and reliable infor- 
mation you can educate your people. If you say this is 
impossible the game is up. England would not wish to 
coerce a whole community." The Governor has got into 
very strained relations with his present ministers, while he 
keeps up a good deal of intercourse with his late advisers. 
The Association to which I refer is supported almost entirely 
by Scanlen's supporters. This is a great mistake ; its basis 
ought to be widened so that the best Dutch could join. 

Meanwhile Sir Hercules Robinson was being driven 
to a firmer position. Towards the end of September 
he announces to Lord Derby, " That it appears to me 
that Her Majesty's Government must either abandon 
the Protectorate or the Convention, or announce to 
the freebooters of the South African Republic that 
existing arrangements will be enforced, if necessary, by 
the adoption of active measures." On October 13 th, 
he is prepared to propose that a force of not less than 
1000 or 1200 mounted men should be sent to secure 



THE ROUSING OF CAPE COLONY 367 

peace, and he proposes that Sir Charles Warren should 
be appointed in command of the expedition. It was 
not three months since he had been cross-questioning 
Mackenzie regarding the expense of sending 200 
volunteers to the same territories, because he was sure 
that the British taxpayers would resent it ! The 
popular indignation over recent events, and Robinson's 
sudden boldness, made the Cape Ministers, the friends 
of Mr Hofmeyr, desperate ; they now proposed that 
the High Commissioner should prevent the Imperial 
Government from acting, and allow them personally to 
make peace in Goshen. After considerable controversy 
Robinson agreed, and the Prime Minister, Mr Upington, 
went north with Mr Gordon Sprigg in the middle of 
November on their Quixotic enterprise. Their negotia- 
tions with Pittius and his freebooters resulted in 
proposals so shameful, that when they were sub- 
mitted to Robinson he would do nothing but treat 
them with contempt. When Messrs Upington and 
Sprigg passed back through the Colony, they were 
accorded anything but a favourable reception. On the 
night of their arrival in Kimberley their effigies were 
burned in public, and the same thing occurred at Cape 
Town. A public meeting was also held at the latter 
place, at which once more, Mackenzie, whose name was 
not on the programme, was compelled by the gathering 
to speak. He says of this speech, " I endeavoured in 
perfect good faith to lay what I regarded as the real 
question before the enthusiastic meeting, and to with- 
draw as far as. I could popular indignation from the 
unfortunate ministers themselves." He called for the 
public support of Sir Charles Warren. " Let him 
settle the question in all its bearings, as if there had 
been no Mackenzie, no Rhodes, no Bower." The 
following sentences are also significant. " When asked 
after the meeting to join those who were spectators at 



368 JOHN MACKENZIE 

the effigy burning, I declined to do so ; the only 
personal allusion made (and I must admit that the 
temptation was great) was, on rising, in a single 
sentence to recall to mind the words ' injudicious and 
unpopular,' which the Cape Ministers in an official 
minute had used of me as an Imperial officer acting 
beyond the Colony. The striking application of their 
own words to themselves was clear enough, and caused 
great amusement to the meeting."^ 

Mackenzie discovered that some of his most 
important despatches about Bechuanaland had not 
been printed, and he at once set about copying some 
of these and sending them to people of influence, both 
in South Africa and in England. At the same time, 
he could not live where he did at this time without 
seeing week by week more deeply into the nature of 
the opposition to himself and the means which had 
been employed to unseat him. Some of these dis- 
coveries he described at length to several correspon- 
dents. One of those to whom he wrote most fully and 
freely was Dr Dale of Birmingham. Writing to him 
on November 19th, he names some of the men who 
worked for his resignation. 

Land was at the bottom of that. Had Sir Hercules 
Robinson stood firm then, things would not have been quite 
so bad — although Goshen was always beyond the manage- 
ment of a Deputy Commissioner, because it was practically 
the Transvaal, and this I pointed out as soon as I visited the 
country. 

The Blue-books, if they are all out, will tell the story 
pretty clearly. I am anxious that you should know the 
merits of the case. My success in Bechuanaland was real. 
But I had no support from behind. Sir H. Robinson was 
favourable himself, but what could he do with his surroundings ? 

" I never knew, Mackenzie, that missionaries were so 
detested here, or I should have hesitated to recommend 

^ *' Austral Africa," vol. i. pp. 514, 516. 



THE ROUSING OF CAPE COLONY 369 

you." "How are they detested, sir?" "Why, I am told 
they are everywhere looked down on, and you know the 
opposition you are getting." "They are not looked down 
on, sir ; they are everywhere received into the ' best ' 
colonial families, and belong to them by intermarriage. As 
to the opposition to me, if you cared to trace it, you 
would track it home to two sources — prejudice among the 
Dutch who don't know me, and base selfishness among 
some of my own fellow countrymen, who know that I am 
too well qualified for the work given to me to suit their 
book as land-grabbers." 

This took place at my recall. It was in an atmosphere 
such as that that my " resignation " took place. They will 
turn against Warren too, for he is a straight Christian man ; 
but they won't be able to raise the same " make-believe " 
stories about him. 

A very amusing thing has happened. Sprigg and 
Upington have gone to Bechuanaland, where they said 
some months ago, Mackenzie was the chief, if not the 
only, cause of the disturbance. They are trotted out to 
put down this disturbance by Hofmeyr & Co., and when 
they get to Stellaland they are met with a petition, openly 
in course of signature, to the High Commissioner, asking 
that Mackenzie should be sent back to Bechuanaland ! 
What I say about this really wonderful movement is that 
I have never answered one of these fellows' letters, lest it 
should be said that I was undermining my successors. 

A few weeks later, December 24th, he knows still 
more, and enters into particulars which even at this 
date his biographer may not print. After naming the 
men, their interest in land, their control of the news 
agency, he describes the tremendous influence which 
they exercised at Government House. One sentence 
is of peculiar significance. 

" I saw a copy of a letter in which one of the men in 
this * swim ' writes to another, and asks him why he still 
trusts in Mackenzie, a political suicide, a broken reed; 
that is to say, an honest man who is not to be bought." 

In a similar strain he writes to Mr Stead on the 
last day of that year. 

2 A 



370 JOHN MACKENZIE 

Why I have not written to you has been that I have been 
copying despatches of mine that have not been published. 
I am sending copies to friends. Mr Chesson has a copy 
which I have asked him to show you, if you care for it. 

The keeping quiet the important statement about land 
in Mankoroane's is alarming ; in fact, unless the thing is 
hushed up Sir C. Warren must stumble over it and expose 
a big thing in land, and it was that big thing which kicked 
me out of ofiEice. The Dutch opposition was there, but 
could not have done it. Why was there English opposi- 
tion ? Land ! Or I am a Dutchman also. 

In several of these quotations Mackenzie has 
emphasised the fact that after leaving Stellaland in 
the hands of his successor, he v^^as most careful to 
hold no correspondence with his friends there, for 
the simple reason that he did not wish even to 
seem to interfere with the success of those who 
supplanted him. It can be said with all truth that 
he was willing to put his whole heart into the work 
of making the administration of Mr Rhodes successful. 
He spared no pains to advise with the High Com- 
missioner and Captain Bower regarding the right 
steps to take for the establishment of the Protectorate. 

Mackenzie was ever a poor man, and one of the 
stern facts which faced him at Cape Town was that 
he must find some means of livelihood before long. 
He took some share, as we have seen, in an effort to 
establish an association of the friends of British 
supremacy in South Africa, and at one time it was 
proposed that he should become paid secretary of this 
association, but he avoided this when he discovered 
that the league was being constructed on too narrow a 
basis. He had no more sympathy, as he so often said, 
with the English howlers than with those of Dutch 
extraction. He could only approve of movements 
which aimed at the establishment of British authority 
for the sake of all races in South Africa. He could 
no more be brought to sympathise with an outcry 



THE ROUSING OF CAPE COLONY 371 

for mere Anglo-Saxon supremacy than with one for 
mere Dutch or Kaffir supremacy. 

In a letter to his wife he describes yet another 
proposal which came before him : — 

Did I tell you that Rhodes and Bower — through the 
latter — wanted to interest themselves in my personal affairs, 
and offered to advance ^^500, and purchase for me the 
Eastern Star paper in Graham stown ? I respectfully 
declined. Bower tried my patience to the very utmost 
limit by assuring me and re-assuring me that he wants to 
assist me to "get something." He takes up the role of 
special friend. 

Vou will see by the papers that I speak at the Empire 
League meeting at Wynberg. I went really for Searle's 
sake, who has been so kind and nice, and who is a 
sterling man. Well, Bower was good enough in the after- 
noon, in his office, to go over what he thought I ought to 
say ! I listened patiently — so far as outward mien went — 
ready to explode in reality. But what capped all was, find- 
ing I was so docile, he actually asked me to show him my 
notes of my speech, that he might make suggestions ! He 
seemed surprised when I said, " Tuts, man ; my notes ? 
No, no!" 

In the middle of November there arrived a letter 
from Mr Wardlaw Thompson, Secretary of the London 
Missionary Society, which gave Mackenzie as much 
pure pleasure as almost any event in his public life. 
He describes this to the portion of his family who 
were in Scotland. 

I have had a great pleasure this week, and hasten to 
make you at home sharers of it, if you have not heard of 
it. The Directors of the L. M. S. have been good enough 
to send out a Resolution, which virtually says, " If you 
want money, draw it at the rate of the married missionary. 
If you rejoin the Society then your drawings will have been 
your salary. If you enter government or other work, then 
you can refund as you are able." 

Now, what do you think of the dear old L. M. S. ? I 
mean to say it is nobly done. I count it one of the 
honours of my life to reconnect myself in this way. I 



372 JOHN MACKENZIE 

shall accept of the honour which they do me, but I trust 
I shall not need to draw money. I feel quite lifted up 
in my own mind with great thankfulness that the Directors 
are such broad-minded, thoughtful. Christian gentlemen. 

He refers to the same offer in a letter to Dr Dale, 
from which we have already quoted, and in the same 
strain of joy and thankfulness : — 

I consider that offer one of the greatest honours of my 
life. I shall never forget it. I hope to be able to do 
without the actual money, but the generous friendly offer 
of'\X\ mean at once to accept. 

Mackenzie, in spite of the fact that he took the 
duties of life with great seriousness, was not a man 
who allowed himself to be depressed as long as he 
saw some definite work to be done. To have a great 
duty upon him was no burden but an inspiration ; it 
absorbed him completely, making him at almost each 
turn in his life a man, forjthe time being, of one idea. 
His complete devotion at this period to the service of 
South Africa sustained him amidst public trials and 
private anxieties which might have crushed a less faith- 
ful man. 

To Dale he writes in the month of November : — 

As to these (my future plans) I just feel, Dr Dale, that I 
have put my hand to this plough, and do not want to turn 
aside while I can do work for the unifying of South Africa 
under the Crown, for peaceful expansion and for territorial 
government. Considering everything, Her Majesty's Govern- 
ment may find work for a person like myself I am still at 
their service. Of course, I deeply feel that I have been 
unjustly dealt with. I blame no one. The fact, however, is 
there. I do not bate a jot in hopefulness. 

You ought to have heard the Dutch students cheer my 
lecture, and cheer me too. The dear old Society is as dear to 
me as ever; in some sense dearer even. If it were not for the 
weight of this other business I should just knock at their door 
as I did some thirty years ago. Of course, I cannot remain 
long as I am here — staying merely for public reasons. The 



THE ROUSING OF CAPE COLONY 373 

pot must be kept boiling, and five months' separation from 
my family is a good while. 

To his wife he writes in November : — 

When I saw His Excellency yesterday he was more than 
usually " furthy " and kind. He said Lord Derby had thought 
of employing me in Zululand, " but really," he added, referring 
to a recent telegram, " one does not know what to expect, 
for here, he declares, they are not going to touch Zululand." 
I did not ask any questions, or refer to the matter again. So 
you know what I know, that the Colonial Office still think me 
eligible for their work. 

Robinson is not courageous enough. His opinion about 
me is favourable enough, but he has been brow-beaten by 
those around him. But cheer up, dearie, the work which I 
am attempting is a great one ; if I can only do it partially I 
shall be pleased to see it complete — a united peaceful South 
Africa under the Queen, with territorial government of native 
states. . . . May it please Him who has the hearts of all men 
in His hand so to dispose of events as to bring this speedily 
about. 



CHAPTER XIV 

AFRICA THE WARREN EXPEDITION (l88s) 

We come now to an event in South African history 
which for a time awoke the utmost enthusiasm amongst 
the vast majority of human beings in that region. It 
seemed to usher in a new age, and to establish the 
British Government in new relations with every colony, 
state, and territory. When Sir Charles Warren arrived 
at Cape Town, and there mobilised his force of four 
thousand men, he was welcomed, says Mackenzie, as 
no other British officer ever had been welcomed in 
that country.^ 

There was the utmost confidence in the personality 
of the Special Commissioner, whose long experience of 
South African affairs and high character made his a 
name to conjure with among both black and white of 
all races. 

Sir Charles speedily found himself in a hotbed of 
intrigue. His difficulties we need not here detail, 
except in so far as they have to do with the life of 
Mackenzie. Mackenzie recalls with amusement the 
fact that Sir Hercules Robinson actually requested 
Warren not to consult Mackenzie regarding the affairs 
of Bechuanaland. To this, of course. Sir Charles 
agreed, and he only saw his old friend two or three 
times for brief interviews in public in Cape Town. 
Sir Charles Warren called for volunteers, and without 
difficulty formed a splendid regiment of horsemen to 

^ " Austral Africa," volii, p. 37. 
374 



THE WARREN EXPEDITION 375 

the number of six hundred picked men, and the 
applicants were so numerous, " that several good 
regiments could have been enrolled instead of 
one." 1 

One of the Special Commissioner's first discoveries 
when he reached Stellaland was of a most disagreeable 
nature. On the second day after his arrival at Cape 
Town the High Commissioner and Captain Bower 
had pressed him to initial a telegram, which they 
told him would prevent disturbances in Stellaland. 
He could not, of course, thus early have understood 
its real purport, but accepted the word of the High 
Commissioner, and the telegram was sent with his 
authority. He found afterwards that the effect of 
it was to confirm Mr Rhodes's agreement with Van 
Niekerk of September 8th, and thus to confirm all land 
titles issued by Niekerk without inquiry, as well as to 
continue the authority of Niekerk in Stellaland. This 
preposterous arrangement he repudiated as soon as it 
was discovered, but the repudiation cost him much 
correspondence and bitter criticism from those who 
were interested. 

Once more the interesting fact is to be recorded, 
that regarding this very telegram Sir Hercules Robin- 
son had besought Sir Charles Warren not to tell 
Mackenzie about it.^ 

On January 16, 1885, Mackenzie received a mes- 
sage from Sir Charles Warren inviting him to pro- 
ceed at once to his headquarters. He arrived at 
Barkly West in three days, and from that day Mac- 
kenzie was a member of the Warren expedition, hold- 
ing his official position on the Intelligence Department. 
His services to Sir Charles were varied, numerous, and 
of vital importance ; the two old friends struck the 
roots of their friendship still deeper during the ensuing 
months, occupying, for most of the time, the same 

^ "Austral Africa," vol. ii. p. 41. ^ C— 4432, p. 119. 



376 JOHN MACKENZIE 

tent, and consulting together about every important 
movement of the troops or decision of the Commis- 
sioner. When in August 1885, Sir Charles Warren 
reported to the Home Government regarding the 
officers who had rendered special services to him, he 
named Mackenzie at the head of the list. It is a 
satisfaction to be able to record that he also mentioned 
in terms of very warm praise two of the men whom 
Mackenzie had selected as his own assistants in 
Bechuanaland, namely, Major Stanley Lowe and Mr 
J. M. Wright of Mafeking. 

Concerning Mackenzie, the following is his report : — 

I. Reverend J. Mackenzie, whose employment has been 
specially sanctioned by the Secretary of State, has rendered 
most important services, and I cannot too strongly express 
how much I am indebted to him for the assistance he has 
rendered to Her Majesty's Government. He has acted on 
several committees of inquiry and investigation with great 
success ; his assistance to the military tribunal ordered by the 
Secretary of State has been simply invaluable. There is, I 
think, no one else in South Africa who could have given the 
assistance he has given. 

The confidence reposed in him by not only the native 
tribes, but also by the Dutch and English population has 
been most marked. At the meeting of Fourteen Streams 
with President Kruger, the presence of Mr Mackenzie was 
most conducive to the pacific arrangements, and I consider 
the complete success of the expedition is due in a marked 
degree to his cordial co-operation and aid. 

His complete knowledge of the Sechuana language, and 
good influence over the native tribes, has enabled me the 
better to keep the natives and whites at peace pending the 
land settlement ; and I may further add that I have little 
doubt that the cordial reception of the protectorate by 
both the chiefs, Khama and Sechele, is due to the fact 
that the natives have such great confidence in his good 
faith. 

Reference is made in this report to the meeting at 
Fourteen Streams where Sir Charles Warren and Pre- 



THE WARREN EXPEDITION 377 

sident Kruger held a conference. The President was 
obviously alarmed at the strength of the Warren ex- 
pedition, and manifested his alarm in his eagerness to 
disown the Goshenites. It must be remembered that 
these events occurred before the discovery of gold, 
while the Transvaal was yet poor, and at a time when, 
in spite of recent pecuniary relief accorded it by Great 
Britain, the government of the South African Republic 
was drifting rapidly into poverty and disorganisation. 
The appearance, therefore, of so formidable a com- 
mander, with so powerful and splendidly equipped an 
army, created alarm in the guilty consciences at 
Pretoria, and Mr Kruger hastened to Goshen. There 
he imperatively ordered the Boers to cease from 
aggressive operations against Montsioa, and then he 
went down the border to the nearest point at which 
he could meet with Sir Charles. The discussions be- 
tween Sir Charles Warren and President Kruger 
resulted in the assertion and vindication of British 
supremacy in Bechuanaland ; and the effect of this 
conference, as of the entire expedition, might have 
been the permanent establishment of that supremacy 
in a manner that would have prevented the de- 
velopment of Boer ideals regarding a Dutch South 
Africa. 

Both Mackenzie and Mr Rhodes were present at 
this most interesting interview. The High Com- 
missioner warned Sir Charles Warren against taking 
Mackenzie, because of the dislike of President Kruger 
towards him ; but Mackenzie records that Mr Kruger 
treated him with courtesy and consideration. And 
Sir Charles Warren has put it on record that the 
presence of the latter was of material value to him 
and his interests on that occasion. Once more it 
was demonstrated that the Cape Town cry, that the 
Dutch hated Mackenzie personally,, was entirely base- 



^yZ JOHN MACKENZIE 

less ; opposition to him existed on the part only of 
those who saw that his policy must defeat theirs, and 
the true friends of Great Britain and British South 
Africa ought to have seen this. 

The manner in which Imperial interests were treated 
at this time is well illustrated by the disagreeable 
history of a certain petition which may be here re- 
lated. The petition has been referred to in one of 
Mackenzie's letters already quoted. It was drawn up 
by the loyalist Stellalanders as a courageous protest 
against the Niekerk-Rhodes agreement and subsequent 
regime. On November 5th, 1884, they held a public 
meeting at Vryburg, at which it was agreed to obtain 
signatures throughout British Stellaland to a state- 
ment of their true feelings regarding Mackenzie and 
a request for his reappointment. After recalling 
the assertion of the Imperial Secretary, Captain 
Bower, that he (Mackenzie) " never at any time 
possessed the confidence of more than fifty of the 
inhabitants of Stellaland, and that only four of 
the farmer class accorded him their support," they 
affirm that " the majority of the land owners and 
inhabitants in Stellaland " had welcomed his arrival, 
and " felt sure that the policy which Mr Mackenzie 
inaugurated and endeavoured to carry out was the 
best for the country." They add the following, 
" Your petitioners, placing implicit trust in Mr 
Mackenzie's ability to bring about so satisfactory a 
state of affairs, are, therefore, still hopeful that it 
may please your Excellency to reinstate him in his 
former office, and promise in that event to afford 
him every material assistance lying in their power 
in support of his administration." 

The covering letter requests the High Commissioner 
to cable this petition to Lord Derby ^ and states that 
" more than one half of the bona fide owners of land 



THE WARREN EXPEDITION 379 

in Stellaland ' proper ' have signed the same, and 
further, that the great majority of the signatures are 
of Dutch Africanders of the farmer class." The 
letter adds that many more would have signed had 
it not been for fear of threats " held out by Niekerk's 
party." This petition was returned from Cape Town 
by Captain Bower to Mr Rhodes in Stellaland be- 
cause, he explained, it ought to have been officially 
sent through him. Nothing more was done till 
February 5th and 6th, 1885, when Mr Rhodes 
began an inquiry into the genuineness of the signa- 
tures, and cast doubt upon eight. Sir Charles Warren 
arrived at Vryburg on February 7 th, and was not 
informed of the existence of the petition. Months 
afterwards he heard of it, when the Stellalanders 
themselves went to him to report that they had not 
found it in the Blue Books. He at once appointed 
three British officers to investigate the history and 
value of this petition ; and they proved that only 
one signature could be condemned. In his report 
on this matter Sir Charles Warren says, " In con- 
clusion, I have pointed out that one of the strongest 
proofs of the good feeling towards Mr Mackenzie 
is given by the fact that so many months after he 
left, and in spite of the coercion of Niekerk and his 
faction, so many (94) of the farmers should have 
petitioned for his return. ... I am convinced 
that if Mr Mackenzie had had fair play he would 
have settled these territories at the time he 
came up without a stronger force than two hundred 
police." 

It would be out of place to make any comment 
on these transactions, which Mackenzie himself after- 
wards described with the utmost self-restraint. 

But to return. When Sir Charles Warren began 
his journey to Vryburg, Mr Rhodes, with that 



38o JOHN MACKENZIE 

petition in his possession, assured the General that 
if Mackenzie went into Stellaland with the expedition 
he himself would not go. Mackenzie, very sure that 
various discoveries were coming, was quite willing 
to be absent, and offered to retire. It was arranged 
by Sir Charles that he should be sent on a special 
mission westwards as far as Kuruman, to gather 
information regarding the state of the country and 
report. This enabled Mackenzie to enjoy a glimpse 
of his wife and two children after a separation of 
more than six months. While he was there, busily 
at work, a message suddenly arrived summoning him 
immediately to Vryburg. It appeared that Niekerk 
had actually been arrested, and was about to be 
put on his trial for complicity in the murder of a 
man named Honey in the year 1883. The murder 
had been carried through at Niekerk's instigation, 
and under circumstances peculiarly foul and cruel. 
As soon as the Cape Town officials heard of this 
trial fresh excitement and indignation were aroused. 
The representatives of Great Britain did all they 
could to prevent the unfolding of this story. Captain 
Bower, oblivious to exact dates, sent a message 
to the General that Mackenzie had known of 
this murder, and had condoned it. It was a fact 
that the Captain himself, without knowing the full 
truth possibly, had ignored it ; but Sir Charles 
Warren could not believe that Mackenzie had taken 
any such extraordinary step, and at once sent for 
him. 

While arrangements for that trial were going on, 
Mr Rhodes himself left Stellaland and went to in- 
crease the pressure which was being exerted for the 
defeat of the Warren expedition from Government 
House, Cape Town. 

The result of the trial was that only part of the 



THE WARREN EXPEDITION 381 

story became revealed in evidence ; the prosecution 
was stopped, and Niekerk released on technical 
grounds. These facts are fully detailed by 
Mackenzie.^ 

During the expedition Mackenzie was appointed to 
various duties, such as service on special committees, 
which involved him in a large amount of hard work. 
The Blue Books contain evidence of the thoroughness 
with which he carried out the duties assigned to him. 
He was chairman of the Committee on Native Laws, 
which comprised, besides himself, six officers of the 
expedition. This committee conducted investigations 
and made elaborate reports. 

On their way to Mafeking, Mackenzie wrote to his 
wife a letter which refers to some matters already 
mentioned, and gives the reader a feeling for the 
atmosphere in which the members of this Expedition 
lived. 

Maritsane Drift. 

We got to this place about three this morning, and had a 
good sleep after. 

Do you know what has happened? Lord Derby has 
telegraphed out to Sir H. K., who sends it on to Sir C. W., 
that the latter should not have Mackenzie with him ; it might 
(or would) hinder the settlement ! 

This came while I was still at Vryburg. Sir C. said, " I'll 
telegraph to them that I'll settle this in my own way, and by 
whom I please, or resign." The threat part was dropped, but 
he telegraphed home in cipher to Lord Derby to say that 
he considered my presence necessary, and that the greatest 
misapprehension prevailed concerning me. He then tele- 
graphed to Sir Leicester Smythe, Lieut.-Governor and 
Commander-in-Chief at the Cape, telling him what had taken 
place, and declaring that he never knew a case of such 
persecution as mine was, and could he use his influence in 
the right direction ? This is what he did, after consulting 
with his officers. I said, on the first flush of the matter, 



1 << 



Austral Africa," vol. ii. pp. 133-153. 



382 JOHN MACKENZIE 

" Let me go, and have done with this." He answered very 
strongly that he would not hear of it. It then occurred to 
me that this was really iho, first step towards the hasty handing 
over of the country to the Cape. They know that I am 
opposed to this. I wrote privately to that effect to 
Sir Robert Herbert some time ago ; also to others. It is 
evident the Government are prepared to make a hasty 
settlement and retire from the country, and leave the same 
dreadful programme of falsehood, robbery, and blood to be 
carried on elsewhere. Of course Sir C. W. is opposed to 
this, but how far his position may come to be that of a man 
under orders I don't know. I still hope on ; with God's 
help the thing is bound to come right. I saw in a Cape 
paper — you look and find it too — that the Cape branch of 
the Africander Bond had resolved at a recent meeting to give 
special attention to the subject of confederation. This is 
an immense move in the right direction. This means 
confederation under the Queen. Not long ago the same 
people were speaking openly of their own flag, etc., etc. 
One of them said at that time that this revival of Imperial 
interest, and the introduction of the Territorial scheme of 
Government which I proposed, would delay their obtaining 
a Republic for at least fifty years. Now they seem to have 
given this idea up and speak of confederation under the 
Queen. " Alles zal recht Komen " ; and the much-maligned 
Mackenzie will, I humbly trust, have done something towards 
it. 

This affair is full of crises. The great one at Goshen 
is coming. There was one at Vryburg when I got there. 
The preliminary examination (in the Niekerk murder case) 
was about to break down, and Warren was going to interfere 
in virtue of his position, and override the " Civil Court." 
This would have raised a great cry — Military rule ; Despotism, 
etc. On Monday morning we went down to Vryburg from 
the camp, the upshot being that Miiller, the landrost, said 
publicly that LudorPs effort to close the case was "hasty." 
Then Ludorf himself stood up and declared that " as a man 
of honour and in the interests of justice " he could not close 
the case. He knew now what he did not know on Saturday. 
(This was false.) I had a little to do with the management 
of this, as I knew the men. It was very amusing to hear how 
the thing went. Arend (Honey's servant) will be examined 
when the Court re-opens. His evidence is of the first 



THE WARREN EXPEDITION 383 

importance, and will lead to the bringing out of more. The 
court is composed of Niekerk's own people, and yet some- 
thing like justice may be expected, with care. The case needs 
" looking after." There is the utmost consternation in 
Government House. In point of fact, the court which 
is trying Niekerk is one sanctioned and upheld by the 
authority of the High Commissioner and his representatives, 
Bower and Rhodes. Sir Charles avails himself of the court 
and jurisdiction which he finds sanctioned in Stellaland and 
uses it for the trial of Niekerk ! The thing reads like the 
chapter of an exciting novel. 

What ought to be done is, to hold the country for a while 
as a Crown Colony before it is handed over to the Cape 
Colony. This would be for the good of the natives, for 
whose sake so much has been done, and it would be an 
immense blessing to South Africa generally, leading to its 
speedy consolidation. Everywhere there is a section — 
sometimes small, but always noisy — who are not loyal to the 
Queen. Families are sometimes divided. What a mistake 
to profess to retain the country, and yet throw in no weight 
on the side of the loyal Dutch colonists. 

The expedition reached Mafeking on Friday, March 
iith, 1885. The people were naturally over-joyed 
at the arrival of the long-expected deliverer. The 
Goshen filibusters wore an entirely different manner. 
The loud-voiced and more brazen-faced, in fact the 
guiltier men, had disappeared ; and the remnant were 
not of the kind to do aught but cringe before the 
mighty power which now confronted them. 

The following extract from a letter to one of his 
sons throws some more light on these events : — 

But one thing Rhodes was clear about. He would not 
go into Stellaland with Sir Charles, if I went. As he was 
Deputy Commissioner, and I was nothing particular then. 
Sir C. agreed to give me work elsewhere in the Kuruman 
district, which I had pleasure in doing. Sir C. said to me, 
" This is the best thing that could have happened for you." 
However, I will admit that altho' my time was well filled 
up at Kuruman with work, and altho' I had a great deal 



384 JOHN MACKENZIE 

to hear and see from the loved ones there, yet I was willing 
enough to respond to the call to come away again and 
get into the thick of this work and warfare, for it is both 
combined. Great events had transpired in my absence. 
Sir Charles informed me that Niekerk was arrested on a 
charge of complicity in murder, but that Captain Bower 
had written to say that that was condoned by Mackenzie, 
as I had known all against Niekerk, and yet had appointed 
him Assistant Commissioner ! Warren said, " I know this 
is incorrect, but I want you to come at once and say it is 
not true." When I got to Vryburg I found Rhodes had 
gone. There had been a big affair, and Warren had given 
him a considerable piece of his mind, so I was told before 
I got there. 

Niekerk, who is personally a coward — acknowledged on 
all hands to be so — was induced by Rhodes to cross 
into Stellaland, and actually presented himself before Sir 
Charles, and demanded an inquiry and examination into 
charges which had been preferred against him ! This was 
an astounding step. The Cape Argus (Rhodes's paper) 
pointed out what a fine step he had taken, and mentioned 
my name as having blackened Niekerk's character. Charges ! 
They came in clouds, and, to crown all, there came the 
charge of complicity in the murder of a man called James 
Honey, who had also been a freebooter, but had been of 
a better stamp than Niekerk & Company. Sir Charles 
found a court to his hand constructed by Sir H. Robinson 
and Rliodes. The question of jurisdiction was thus dis- 
posed of for him. 

Before leaving Vryburg, wondrous cablegrams came from 
Lord Derby recommending Sir Charles to " separate him- 
self from Mackenzie" — otherwise the settlement would be 
rendered more difficult ! I said I would clear out at once. 
On no account would I stay on mere permission to stay, 
after such a cable as that. Sir C. wired straight to London, 
not thro' Sir Hercules (whom I blame for this), saying that 
he considered my presence necessary — or some such strong 
expression. He had made up his mind to threaten resigna- 
tion in case there had been any uncertainty in the reply. 
The reply, however, gives him full swing as to having me. 
This came straight from London. A " Reuter " telegram from 
Cape Town informs us that there had been a question asked 
in the House on this subject. I suppose Derby's bowing to 



I 



THE WARREN EXPEDITION 385 

Sir H. Robinson and the Cape ministers had been brought 
before the EngHsh pubHc. I am certain they won't stand 
it in England. The reply of Ashley was cool, when you 
come to know that a cable had been sent to Sir Charles 
on the subject from Downing Street. 

There is to be no fighting. Telegrams will have told 
you all about it. But the freebooters are hopeful that our 
stay will only be for a time, and that then they can come 
back. 

At Mafeking Mackenzie seems to have found more 
time for letter-writing. In addition to those already 
quoted two others of special interest may be referred 
to. One was a very long one to his old and most tried 
friend, Rev. G. D. Cullen of Edinburgh, to whom he 
always opened his heart with peculiar frankness and 
confidence. In this letter he goes over a large part 
of the ground already covered in these pages. It 
was here he heard of the birth of his first grand- 
daughter, and his big heart naturally overflowed at 
this event. 

The following letter to his little daughter (Mary) 
at Kuruman is worth inserting, as it reveals the way 
in which, amid the pressure and distractions of heavy 
duties, he could put himself in sympathy with the 
interests even of a child : 

I have been thinking a great deal about you and Hettie 
and Mamma. Who was born on the 25 th of March ? Was 
it not Jeanie? I was thinking about it the day before 
yesterday, but not for very long. 

We have despatch- riders to the nearest telegraph station, 
which is twenty miles from here, at a place called Madibe. 
They come several times in twenty-four hours, and some 
of them usually arrive about twelve at night. I was not 
sleeping very soundly last night. I heard them arrive and 
give in their despatches. Then they go to their place and 
give their horses food, and then, I suppose, go asleep. A 
gentleman in this camp a few days ago sent a message to 
a gentleman in London, and an answer has come back. 
Isn't that funny ? So we could speak to Auntie Bessie in 

2 B 



386 JOHN MACKENZIE 

a few hours if we liked to do so ; only I have nothing to 
say to her in such a hurry. Of course these messages cost 
a great deal of money. I am sorry to say that my nice, 
spirited, and yet comfortable pony died here of horse-sickness. 
I have not got another horse yet. But very few horses have 
died as yet. They have all nose-bags on during the whole 
night, and they are not allowed to eat grass till late in the 
morning. But they get oats and other food. The horses, 
however, are fond of the nice grass, and I don't think they 
quite understand the secret of sleeping with their noses in 
a bag ! and then of standing so long before being allowed 
to go to the grass. I daresay they don't think it kind, and 
yet it is kind all the while. 

They are having grand fun on the top of the rise here 
to-day. There are horse races and mule races, and I don't 
know what all. I am going up after I have quite finished 
writing. 

It is so nice to think that dear Mamma and you and 
Hettie, besides those in Portobello, are always praying for 
God's blessing and help to be given to me in the work 
which I am trying to do. Things look very discouraging 
sometimes, when people don't do what you would like them 
to do ; but it is very sweet to look above all men to God 
Himself, our merciful Father, and to say to Him, " Thy 
will be done." We wish to do His will here ; but the work 
before us is not an easy one, especially at present. 

Now there is a long letter to your own dear, old-fashioned 
little self. And you go on praying darling, and good news 
will come at last. How are you getting on with lessons ? 

Without putting off much time Sir Charles pushed 
on towards Shoshong where he arrived on Friday, 
May 8th, 1885. Needless to say, it was one of the 
supreme moments of Mackenzie's life when he per- 
sonally and officially accompanied a British Commis- 
sioner to the capital of Khame's country. Once more 
he stood looking at the old hills amid which so many 
years of his best strength had been spent. Once 
more he met Khame, who welcomed him with the 
fervour of an undying friendship. As usual, the 
negotiations at this place were conducted through 



THE WARREN EXPEDITION 387 

Mackenzie, whose peculiar relations to both sides 
enabled him to deal in private with Khame as his 
trusted friend and adviser, and at the same time to 
appear at his court as one of the representatives of 
the Queen. The peculiar position in which he stood, 
and his work, are described fully in " Austral Africa," 
but from another and tenderer point of view in the 
following letter to his wife : — 

We arrived here on Friday. This is Tuesday, yet this is 
the first scrap I have written in English. I have had a most 
engrossed and most exciting time of it. Khame's pleasure 
at seeing me once more, and at such a crisis too, was evidently 
very sincere ; and on the first interview he said to me in 
Sechuana, " I shall lean on you as in the olden time ; stop 
me if I go wrong." There was no need for this, however, 
as he spoke well both in public and in private, and has won 
golden opinions from all our party. Even the young officers, 
who are a little sceptical about hero-making, declare that he 
is a fine fellow. I have privately drawn up Khame's state- 
ment for him, and Lloyd has copied it. I daresay this will 
be suspected by the General, but I am not telling him, lest 
the knowledge of this should be embarrassing. At anyrate, 
in the meantime Khame is putting in a map which will show 
the boundary lines of his country — up to the Zambesi, and 
which also shows another inner line, which is the country 
claimed by the Chief for his own use and the use of his 
people. As to the expenses of the Protectorate, Khame 
invites the coming of English settlers into the rest of his 
country ; he says that they ought to be — with his own people 
— the defenders of the country, and that Khame's contribu- 
tion to the defence of the country is the large and most 
valuable territory which he now places in the hands of the 
Queen. This has all been spoken, and the maps are now 
being made. I do not know what answer Warren will give 
to Khame's statement in writing, if he gives any. As the. 
General and I have the same tent he, of course, has seen that 
I have been doing a deal of writing. We are quite of one 
opinion on this as on many other points. 

I cannot tell you how many enquiries have been made for 
you, from Ma-Bessie downwards. " Mawillie oa Rae ? " has 
been the question. Poor Khame ! He declared to me that 



388 JOHN MACKENZIE 

his prayer had been answered in my coming. The General's 
speech and Khame's were very good ones this morning. 
Then others spoke, Gohakgosi, Raditadi, etc. "Their 
country must not be sold, and strong drink must not come 
into it. The coming of good English farmers would teach 
them many things. They were willing to learn, and would 
welcome such men into their country." This was the drift 
of the speaking. 

We are now with our faces southward, and will probably 
start to-morrow. As soon as I get within reach of Helio- 
graph I shall send you a scrap, or I may send you one with 
this. 

I have ridden all the way. You need have no anxiety 
about me. I have lots of bedding now, and indeed have 
lent Mr Baden-Powell my plaid. 

Lloyd preached in English very nicely — all were present. 
I preached in Sechwana — people crowded both sides of 
church. If I had not stuck to my text I could not have got 
on. People very affectionate. The old house is without 
roof, its timbers having been utilized by Mr Hepburn, which 
was quite right. Lloyd is building beyond Hepburn's, as it 
were against the long hill opposite our house, about opposite 
our old church, of which nothing stands now. Indeed, as 
to buildings, nothing that I have put up here is now standing. 
As to the spiritual structure we must leave that to the loving 
and merciful Master's eye. He knows how little we have 
done. 

The magnificent offer which Khame made to Great 
Britain, surely one of the most striking events in the 
whole of British Colonial history, was treated with 
great coolness in London, and was ultimately laid 
aside. The Colonial Ofifice came to the conclusion 
only sixteen years ago, on the dictum largely of Sir 
Hercules Robinson, that the British people had no 
interests beyond the Molopo River. 

From Shoshong Sir Charles turned his face south- 
wards again. Mackenzie left him at Taungs and pro- 
ceeded to Kuruman. There he remained a while 
watching the news of Sir Charles's wonderful progress 
through the Colony, and ruminating over his own 



I 



THE WARREN EXPEDITION 389 

future. He was at once deeply encouraged and much 
disappointed in the results of the Warren expedition. 
The whole arrangement of the expedition by Sir 
Charles was most brilliant. It combined dignity with 
great military skill and superb political wisdom. 
Everywhere the General as well as his officers and 
men had won golden opinions, alike from Boer and 
British, from black and white. It was an army that 
any government might have been proud to use for 
the still further winning of still greater glory. It put 
South Africa completely at the feet of Queen Victoria. 
If Sir Charles had been continued in power as Special 
Commissioner, with a free hand to build up one or 
two Crown colonies in the heart of Central Africa, we 
can all see now that the miseries and disgraces of 
subsequent years would have been prevented. The 
worst of it is that men like Sir Charles Warren, 
Mackenzie, and a large number of wise men in South 
Africa, as well as statesmen of the type of W. E. 
Forster and Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton and many 
others in London, understood the facts and told the 
public the very truth at the time, which all the world sees 
to-day. Both Sir Charles Warren and Mackenzie had 
used their utmost endeavours to persuade the Colonial 
Office that the expedition ought not to be withdrawn 
until a stable form of government had been established 
throughout Bechuanaland, and an Imperial Land 
Commission had completed its work in an imperial 
spirit. 

Yet the Expedition was withdrawn, with the cordial 
thanks of the British Government, not at the end, 
but at the very beginning of the real work, which in 
those days of crisis ought to have been done in South 
Africa. 

Brooding deeply over these things under his old 
roof at Kuruman, Mackenzie, not without a struggle 
and profound self-sacrifice, decided that for him the 



390 JOHN MACKENZIE 

service of South Africa and his Queen in the world of 
political agitation had not been ended. 

Writing to his sister-in-law, Miss Douglas, he says : 

Sir Charles Warren's time of. power in Bechuanaland is 
over, and consequently so is mine. Much — very much — 
has been accomplished — so as to surprise myself when I 
think of it. There is a Crown Colony after all. . . . Now, 
I am afraid that when Warren and his expedition leave all 
the English people's interest will evaporate also. So I am 
really seriously contemplating coming over the water to see 
what can be done to keep the matter before the public mind 
in its right light. 

The expedition has done much. It has pacified the 
country and opened up the interior as it never was 
before. The Crown Colony and the Land Commission have 
been obtained after hard fighting ; but there they are ; even 
if the General and I have to clear out — so much has been 
accomplished. The General has been badly used by Sir 
Hercules, and has written to Government to complain of 
serious misrepresentations in last Blue-book. All that is very 
distressing, but I trust it will have one good result of showing 
people that the High Commissionership is incompatible with 
the local politics of the Cape Colony. 

You will be glad to learn that Sir C. Warren has written 
very kindly about me in his despatches, but I suppose they 
will be blocked in giving me any employment while Robinson 
is there. Isn't that queer, and he my great friend and 
upholder last year? He has turned on himself. I hold the 
same views now as then. 

I have written to Wardlaw Thompson and another London 
friend with reference to my coming home — especially in con- 
nection with securing Khame's country ; and I have asked 
Thompson if after consulting they think I should do so, they 
are to cable one word, and I shall be making all preparations. 
I might do some good, but would be glad of their views, as 
I am out here and they are on the spot. Sir Charles and 
his staff are anxious I should go. I have put it straight to 
Thompson that if I go I must not belong to the class ** with- 
out any ostensible means of livelihood," and that therefore 
they must consider whether the kind of work I am likely to 
do is work of which they can approve, and which they can 



THE WARREN EXPEDITION 391 

co-operate with me in doing by enabling me to keep the pot 
boiling. I have been paid by Sir Charles. 

The London Missionary Society wrote to inquire 
whether he would be willing to go and settle at one of 
their stations in Matabeleland ; but this he felt himself 
forced at that time to decline, so deep was his convic- 
tion that unless the work which he could do in London 
were undertaken, almost the entire fruits of his own and 
Sir Charles Warren's labours would be destroyed. He 
felt the truth of the words which Mr Theodore Schreiner 
wrote to him : — 

I do trust the Home Government, now that Sir Charles's 
mission to South Africa has once more made it possible for 
British supremacy to be a fact in the country, will not let us 
drift again into the chaotic longings after a Republic, that 
were the outcome of the indifference and blunders of England 
with regard to us. With these thoughts it is doubtful whether 
the sense of loyalty now once more awakened would survive a 
second extinction. 

Mackenzie was much cheered by the extraordinary 
enthusiasm with which his late General was received 
throughout the Colony. Sir Charles Warren went 
from Kimberley through the Eastern Provinces to 
Port Elizabeth, and was everywhere met with en- 
thusiastic demonstrations. He spoke freely of the 
future relations of Great Britain to South Africa, and 
his bold outlines of an Imperial policy were cheered 
to the echo. He took occasion at every oppor- 
tunity to review recent history, especially as far as 
it bore upon the reputation of his friend Mackenzie, 
and he found that the public mind was well informed 
regarding the merits of the chief occurrences and 
controversies. 

At Cape Town, in spite of efforts in high places to 
prevent it, the General's reception exceeded anything 
that had been seen before. 

Mackenzie received letters describing these events 



392 JOHN MACKENZIE 

from several of the officers of the expedition, a number 
of whom had formed an attachment to him which lasted 
till the end of his life, and which some of them took 
every suitable occasion to express. Sir Bartle C. 
Frere, the son of his old friend, wrote to him from 
Cape Town a letter, from which the following extract 
may be made : — 

I have just come back from witnessing the " Torchlight 
Procession " in honour of Sir Charles, and hearing his speech 
to the populace thereafter, during the course of which his 
warm allusions to yourself elicited six distinct and most hearty 
rounds of applause, such as I hope made your ears tingle 
even at the far-off distance of Kuruman. It was very pleasant 
to hear. Nor, as you are no doubt aware, has there been any 
but the warmest applause on any of the recent occasions when 
he has alluded to yourself and your work. As my neighbours 
at one of the many recent banquets said to me, " They may 
say what they like about Mackenzie, but there's no doubt that 
he saved that country ! " 

From Colonel Terry came similar news : — 

You will have seen by the papers the warm welcome 
given to the General along the route to Cape Town, and 
here it has — among the vast majority who have joined in 
it — exceeded all. 

Your name was enthusiastically received in Port Elizabeth 
and here. You may count on the warm support of the 
Eastern Provinces and of Cape Town, and on a special rally 
due to the mean attacks of which you have been the subject. 

Sir C. W. also gains something in the minds of the people 
for having stuck to you. 

On the 2nd of November Mackenzie arrived once 
more in Cape Town. He had left his wife and two 
daughters to keep house with his medical son, who 
had settled at Kimberley in private practice. 

In his first letter to his wife, he speaks of the very 
great kindness with which all his friends had received 
him. Several of them, as soon as they knew of his 



THE WARREN EXPEDITION 393 

arrival, arranged a private dinner in his honour, and 
this took place next day at the City Club. 

I have just come back from the dinner at the City Club, 
which a number of gentlemen invited me to. The Hon. R. 
Southey was in the Chair ; Hon. Ebden, Vice-Chair ; Lewis, 
M. L. A. Searle, Wilmore, St Leger, Maclean of Donald Currie 
& Co., Hamilton Ross, R. M. Ross, Moore, Rev. Sutton 
Fletcher, Dr Douglas, Dr Ebden, Arderne, Beard, etc., over 
20 in all. The thing was got up in a short time — I really 
don't know by whom. But it was very, very kind. Old 
Southey spoke so nicely and kindly. I made a few remarks, 
again identifying myself with them, and telling them a little 
of what I hoped to do. They were very kind. Then Searle 
made a nice speech, thanking St Leger for what the Cape 
Times had done. It was quite impromptu, and the meeting 
took it very well. St Leger replied, and both he and Searle 
incidentally said the kindest things of me, St Leger declaring 
that he would back me, altho' all the newspapers in the world 
went against me. Well, I am pleased and thankful ; only it 
was a wet night, and Mr Arderne ran and borrowed Dr 
Kitching's coat for me, so I have not caught cold, and you, 
dearest, can amuse yourself by wondering whether Dr Kitching 
had more than one coat, or whether he needed this one before 
I was able to return it. 

This is my last note before leaving — only I may add a few 
lines. The Governor has lost in public opinion here very 
much. Government House influence was exerted to its 
utmost bent to frustrate the reception to Warren, but it 
was impossible. Merriman joined the Committee, but after- 
wards withdrew, leaving the impression that he had joined it 
to crush and minimize the whole thing. Hofmeyr is said 
to be returning with Upington. The Dutch have been 
grumbling at Hofmeyr's long absence, but he will no doubt 
pull them all right when he comes back. I have paid my 
passage. I confess it seems a lonely kind of proceeding, 
altho' I am going to see my own people on the other side. 
However, cheer up, dearie, let us wait on God, our Father 
and Guide. He will guide and uphold us. 

In another letter, he once more asks his children for 
that on which he ever most relied, viz.^ their prayers on 
his behalf. 



394 JOHN MACKENZIE 

" Pray for me," he says, " that I may be able to do much 
for this country when I go to England ; and that God would 
put it into their hearts to do the right things, so that there 
may be peace and good laws and right ways in the country." 

He reached London on November 25 th, and imme- 
diately plunged into war once more in that great battle- 
field where so many Imperial fights have been lost and 
won. He little knew when he undertook this task, 
with a clear perception of the policy he would pursue, 
and the definite steps in South African development 
which he would secure, that he would be involved in 
this warfare well nigh five years, and that during 
this period of his life he would toil, as few men have 
ever toiled, with an unselfishness and a devotion to 
one supreme ideal which would absorb his life, and 
practically shorten his days. 

Before entering on this chapter, we may close by 
quoting a characteristic post-card which he received 
from his friend, Mr W. T. Stead, who was then — not 
languishing — in Holloway gaol. 

Well, I am in great spirits, thirsting to interview you. I 
have made application to have you admitted for one half an 
hour next week, and we must e'en make the best use of our 
time, 

I am disgusted with Capt. Bower, but I suppose all men 
were made for some purpose, and now that you and I are 
together again we must lend a hand to save South Africa once 
more. 

I am very happy, very busy, and watch with some elation 
the fulfilment of my prophecies. 



CHAPTER XV 

ENGLAND " BAFFLED TO FIGHT BETTER " 

(1885-1887) 

Mackenzie found the political life of the home 
country in great tumult over a general election. 
The Irish Home Rule question occupied the atten- 
tion of statesmen, journalists, and private citizens, 
almost to the exclusion of every other interest. 
The frequent changes of government caused at that 
period by the Gladstonian policy did only harm 
to the work of the Colonial Office. Within a dozen 
years there were no less than six different occu- 
pants of the Colonial Secretaryship. Colonel Stanley 
was in office when Mackenzie landed in England, but 
was destined soon to give place to Earl Granville ; 
from 1887 Sir Henry Holland (afterwards Lord 
Knutsford) held the office until 1892. 

The following letter to his eldest daughter, written 
the day after his arrival in London, describes his first 
day's experiences in his old haunts : — 

I reached London yesterday afternoon. Saw Thompson at 
the Mission House. Looked up at Islington (but missed) the 
young schoolmaster whom they are sending to Kuruman. 
Then went to Waterloo Station for my luggage, and brought 

it to the old place. Only think, B out on election work ! 

People are all daft here, and I suppose you are even worse 
in the North, where the great wizard has got you all under 
his spell. At anyrate, everyone will have heard him and seen 
him, and will thus be able to tell those of a succeeding 
generation how Mr Gladstone could hold an audience 
spell-bound. 

To-day I went to see Chesson, and missed him. Missed 

395 



396 JOHN MACKENZIE 

young missionary again at Mission House. Went to Colonial 
Institute and found a note of welcome from my friend Gates. 
Then called for Sir Robert Herbert, Permanent Secretary, 
Colonial Office. As it was a chance call I felt pleased when 
told he was in. There was considerable delay, but as one 
after another of the other assistant secretaries popped in 
and sat down, I fancied Sir Robert had been letting them 
know. Mr Bramstone was the first, then Lord Dunraven, 
then Colonel Stanley's secretary, to say he could not come, 
as he had an engagement for 4, but would I call to-morrow 
at that hour ? 

Well, the interview was to me very gratifying. Sir Robert 
said straight out before the others, that for his part, he was 
glad, and yet sorry to see me. He would be much better 
pleased to know I was in Bechuanaland. We got a map 
and went over some business. I did not make the interview 
long. They asked my address for their book, and in every 
way gave me to understand that I was a welcome visitor. 

Sir Robert, when alone, expressed his great regret at the 
results to myself, and added, " of course we left it in Sir 
Hercules' hands." I said, " Of course as I resigned, and Sir 
H, approved, I quite looked for your acquiescence." So I 
go to see Colonel Stanley to-morrow. 

A little later he wrote to his son in Africa, saying : — 

I am very busy, but my work, if I can do it, will really be 
worth accomplishing. May it please God to give me the open 
support of good and true people in the Colony. However, 
such may not be His will. Rejected people must always do 
their duty for those who reject them. 

Shortly after his arrival in London, news reached 
him from Bechuanaland, which confirmed him in the 
conviction that there was great danger of the imme- 
diate return of disorder and disaster in that region. 
This only made him set his teeth, as it were, to a 
more determined and a stronger fight. Mr W. E. 
Forster, his warm friend and supporter of his policy 
in South Africa, lay on, what proved to be, his death- 
bed. Mackenzie exchanged messages with him, but 
the brave statesman's days of active service were over. 



"BAFFLED TO FIGHT BETTER" 397 

His private secretary, Mr Arthur H. Loring, who was 
deeply interested in South African affairs, took personal 
pleasure in keeping communications going between the 
sick man and Mackenzie. 

As Mackenzie, during these early weeks of his new 
life, brooded over his programme, it became clear that 
there were three great results to be aimed at in regard 
to the British management of South Africa and its 
affairs. In the first place, the High Commissionership 
must be separated from the Governorship of Cape 
Colony ; in the next place, British authority and 
government must be effectively extended to the 
Zambesi ; and in the third place, a reasonable 
system of territorial government must be estab- 
lished over all those regions that were thickly 
populated by the native tribes, and where yet there 
was room for European colonisation. 

Incidentally, and as a part of this general pro- 
gramme, Mackenzie was determined to prevent, if 
he could, the annexation of Bechuanaland to Cape 
Colony, a step which he knew was seriously con- 
templated by Cape politicians, and seemed to have 
the approval of Sir Hercules Robinson. It is hard 
for us to estimate the courage, not to say, audacity, 
with which a private individual, without money or 
political position, set himself deliberately to achieve 
these ends. Mackenzie himself once said, " People 
will think my proposal about the Zambesi a sign of 
madness, but I prophesy that within ten years the 
thing will be done." Like a half dozen other re- 
markable prophecies which he ventured on South 
African affairs, this one also was fulfilled, only in 
less than half the time he allowed. 

How was this work to be done ? The first part of 
Mackenzie's programme of practical work consisted in 
the writing of a book. This book tdok him eighteen 
months of very hard and continuous labour to com- 



398 JOHN MACKENZIE 

plete. He did not enter upon the writing of these 
two volumes in a spirit of mere self-vindication. The 
fact that he had been wronged could never have been 
for him a reason for thrusting himself and his story 
upon the attention of the public. He resolved to 
write the history with which he had been concerned, 
because in that crisis of the relations of Great Britain 
to South Africa all the main facts and problems of 
South African history were set in the clearest light. 
To describe these years and the experiences with 
which they had been filled, would enable him, histori- 
cally and pictorially, to make every reader face the 
heart of the difficulty for himself First of all, he 
would show the life of South African natives, and 
depict their position and prospects under British and 
Boer predominance respectively. He would be able 
to describe the political condition of Cape Colony, the 
parties, the personalities, the strange medley of con- 
fused policies, of loyalty and disloyalty, trust and 
distrust, towards Great Britain which made Cape Town 
the spot on which the alternative of Boer or British 
supremacy was to be decided. He could show how 
the colonists felt towards the mother country when 
the Colonial Office reduced them to dismay and ex- 
asperation. He would also be able to show the readi- 
ness of the majority to arise in unbounded enthusiasm 
when the mother country seemed to have definitely 
chosen their part. He would also be able to describe 
the characteristic attitude of the Transvaal Boer. He 
would show the real grounds and reasons for the 
hostility of that people towards Great Britain, for 
their determination to stop the spread of British 
influence northwards, and even the beginning of the 
daring purpose to establish throughout South Africa 
a Dutch Republic. Yet he could show also a willing- 
ness of the Dutch to co-operate with the British, and 
the ease with which a dangerous cleavage between the 



"BAFFLED TO FIGHT BETTER" 399 

races could be not merely bridged for a time, but 
abolished for ever. The practical problem therefore 
which Mackenzie wished to place before the British 
public in his book, as in all his writings and speeches, 
was this : " How deeply do you wish to have a South 
African empire ? Are you not now and henceforth 
inevitably responsible for the future of that entire 
region ? If Great Britain is responsible for the future 
of all South Africa, then the Colonial Office must 
set itself to plan seriously for the government of the 
whole ; and the entire organisation of Imperial affairs 
in South Africa must be directed towards the develop- 
ment of all the races and territories from Cape Town 
to the Zambesi." 

Further, Mackenzie saw with the utmost clearness, 
as every one does, that the end in view must be the 
confederation of all the parts in one dominion. That, 
he held, ought to be not merely foreseen, still less 
ought it to be hurried on, but alike with patience 
and with breadth of vision it ought to be carefully 
prepared for. Hence no one existing South African 
colony or state should be enlarged at the expense 
of the rest, nor should it be placed in a position of 
permanent political superiority. He was able to 
point to the difficulty caused by the ambition of the 
Premier Colony in Australia, which for so long 
hindered confederation on that continent. 

In Mackenzie's view there were two main pre- 
cautions which the Home Government needed to 
take at once if it would at the same time assert its 
supremacy and make its assertion effective. 

In the first place, the High Commissionership 
should be an office like that of the Viceroy of India 
or Governor-General of Canada. It should be 
separated from the governorship of any one colony. 
This separation was advocated, not for the merely 
negative purpose of preventing complications at Cape 



400 JOHN MACKENZIE 

Town but for the far greater positive reasons which 
he was able to urge. For in the day when Great 
Britain appointed a High Commissioner for South 
Africa, gave him a residence and surrounded him 
with a court away from Cape Town, her moral 
influence and political effectiveness over all South 
African races would be multiplied indefinitely. 

But, further, Mackenzie saw, as he had for so many 
years, that the next step must be the occupation of 
all native territories by Imperial officers, who should 
be under the direct supervision of the High Com- 
missioner himself. Steadily and quietly these vast 
regions would be opened up to European farmers, 
miners, and store-keepers, while the native tribes them- 
selves were being wisely led out from their primitive 
habits of life into those of a Christian civilisation. 

In this manner the two Dutch States, the Orange 
Free State and the Transvaal, would become sur- 
rounded with new countries, and would find themselves 
drawn gradually but irresistibly into the life of a 
confederated South Africa. 

All this was mapped out in Mackenzie's mind in 
the year 1885. Indeed, the main principles had been 
grasped by his mind nearly twenty years before that. 
Surely this was the project of a true empire builder ! 
He, however, now showed himself determined to be 
no mere dreamer but a practical labourer in this great 
undertaking. We can all now see how great was the 
outline of South African imperialism which he pro- 
mulgated, and how wise were the doctrines on which 
it was founded. 

It is our task, in this life story of Mackenzie, to 
discover the methods by which he sought to put his 
scheme before the British mind, and, we shall also be 
compelled to see by what classes and individuals the 
scheme was approved and aided, and by whom it was 
opposed and defeated. 



"BAFFLED TO FIGHT BETTER" 401 

In his work he was most powerfully assisted by the 
South African Committee, whose secretaries, Mr H. O. 
Arnold Foster and Mr Arthur H. Loring worked with 
him most strenuously and loyally. The Committee 
included such names as Mr W. M. Acworth of the 
Imperial Federation League, the Hon. Evelyn Ashley, 
Mr H. A. Bryden, Sir T. Fowell Buxton, Mr Sidney 
C. Buxton, the Earl of Camperdown, Mr Joseph 
Chamberlain, Sir William Dunn, Earl (later the Duke) 
of Fife, Sir Robert Fowler, the late Earl Grey and Mr 
Albert Grey (the present Earl Grey), Mr Morgan 
Harvey, and others. This Committee held frequent 
meetings and issued circulars, planned careful action 
in the House of Commons, arranged for public meet- 
ings, and in every way sought to promote the ends 
which Mackenzie had in view, and of which they as 
a whole most heartily approved. 

Mackenzie went down to Scotland that Christmas 
season (1885) and remained there until February. His 
correspondence grew day by day. Wherever he 
went prominent men of both political parties found 
him out, or were sought out by him, for the discussion 
and promotion of his South African policy. Every 
man with an African project of any kind, commercial, 
religious, or political, seemed to think it necessary that 
he should consult Mackenzie. It would be tedious to 
enumerate the purposes for which individuals of all 
sorts sought him out in person or by letter during 
the next few years, for consultation on African affairs. 
Willing ever to serve in a good cause, or to prevent 
mistakes, he found himself in this way involved in 
correspondence, and even in the labour of investiga- 
tions, which did not bear upon his own work. 

On January iith, 1886, he spoke at a meeting of 
the Scottish Geographical Society, at which Mr Joseph 
Thompson read a paper on " East Central Africa and 
its Commercial Outlook." He also was consulted by 

2 c 



402 JOHN MACKENZIE 

the founders of the British East African Company in 
Edinburgh and Glasgow. In the end of February 
he was back again in London, preparing to read a 
paper on Bechuanaland before the Society of Arts, 
for which he received the Society's silver medal. He 
also attended and spoke at a meeting of the Anthro- 
pological Institute, where Captain C. R. Conder 
R. E., read a paper on " The Present Condition of 
the Bechuanaland, Koranna and Matabele Tribes." 
Captain Conder wrote to him, expressing his gladness 
that " we had such a nice little political breeze." 

Mackenzie had in January contributed two long 
and important letters to The Times (January ist 
and 20th, 1886), which attracted wide attention, and 
in which he laid down the fundamental principles of 
his plan of campaign. In an interesting letter to a 
South African editor he refers to these communications 
as follows : — 

I shall be glad if you can give the whole or part of those 
letters in your Dutch columns. I only want to be under- 
stood. I have no fear of the results where I can be heard 
and my views considered. If my views or my policy were 
inimical to the Cape Colony the thing would be different; 
but the fact is, I was alive to the interests of the Cape 
Colony, as to the North, long before its own political 
leaders dreamt of the subject. 

But there must be no hurried annexation and no hurried 
confederation, which I fancy some foolish people would 
wish to make a rush at. Let the Imperial Government 
administer Bechuanaland for some years, north as well as 
south Bechuanaland, and then let it be considered whether 
it may not be safely joined to the Cape Colony, or what 
should be done. 

On February ist he sent to Mr Stead a long letter 
which contained the following paragraphs : — 

Mr Froude's remarks in his new book {Oceana) demand 
special notice. I don't think they will have so much weight 



"BAFFLED TO FIGHT BETTER" 403 

as they would have had before the recent education of people 
concerning South Africa. 

Mr Froude writes very much (I have only seen extracts) 
as he talked to me when I had the pleasure of seeing him 
some time ago. 

I then formed the opinion that Froude was simply " down- 
right angry " with the English in South Africa, as he blamed 
them for his failure when he went out there on a special 
mission. 

Mr Froude then (privately, of course) admitted to me 
that the policy I have been advocating would no doubt be 
the best, but England wouldn't do it, and wouldn't stick to 
it, and what would be the use of trying ? Well, you know 
a good deal about what happened after that. We have now 
in our hands, and in our volition (what we had not then) 
the right to the territory of the interior, and the right to 
manage immigration into it, and the protection of its native 
inhabitants. You know how these things have been obtained, 
and what honour is conferred on England by the trust re- 
posed in her by such chiefs as Khame. There can be no 
question as to our success on the lines I am advocating, and 
which hitherto you have assisted me so much to carry. 
The Crown Colony of Bechuanaland, with the Protectorate 
to the North, are great facts. Let us turn aside neither to 
the right hand nor the left, but make our administration in 
Bechuanaland a wise and real one ; let us admit emigrants 
to Khame's country, and Austral Africa will be by-and-by 
one of our most " creditable " colonies. Remember they 
are all Protestants. 

The following letter to Dr G. B. Clarke, M.P., has 
a note of personal interest : — 

i^th Feb. 1886. 

Dear Dr Clark, — I thank you for your remarks on the 
Zulu question last night. 

I trust we are within sight of a comprehensive and settled 
scheme of South African policy. I am just about to publish 
on the question, and hope to give some information on it. 

What really blocks the way is the want of an Imperial 
Head in South Africa. And Sir Hercules Robinson is dead 
against a disturbance of the present arrangement. His 



404 JOHN MACKENZIE 

arguments do not hold water, and will be got over, no 
doubt, but they have weight for a time, as coming from 
an official in high position, whereas it is really the case that 
he is practically defending himself as having administered 
the joint offices in question. When we turn our faces and 
not our backs to South Africa there will be no difficulty of 
a serious nature. General Gordon said there was no 
difficulty. 

We have differed, and you wrote against me, as I thought 
at the time, unfairly, when I was out in Bechuanaland, but 
none the less I have much pleasure in seeing your remarks 
made last night. — Believe me, ever yours sincerely, 

John Mackenzie. 

To Miss Douglas, April 1 2th, he writes : — 

Dear Sister Bessie, — Seeing that Dr Dale was to speak 
at Newman Hall's Church I went there yesterday morning. 
The good pew-opener must needs honour me with a seat 
well to the front. Dale spotted me after the service, and 
took me off with him to where he was staying with some 
friends. We had a long and very interesting talk. He 
spoke about my letters and what he had done with them, 
and told me of Mr Chamberlain's " soundness " on the 
subject to the last. Dr Dale would like a Royal Commission 
rather than a Committee, and especially objects to Mr 
Gorst ; says he has not much influence, and that he is very 
partisan. He declares that Chamberlain is the man to take 
charge of it. 

It was as if Dale and I had only parted the day before, 
he was so kind and really interested. 

I had a long chat with Stead afterwards. He would like 
a Royal Commission rather than a Committee — like Dale in 
that. He jotted down the subject. He will really help in 
his own way. He is a capital fellow, and could not be more 
friendly to me. 

This afternoon I went down to the House by appointment, 
to meet Sir Donald Currie. I wish I could transcribe our 
talk ; I shall not try to-night. By the way we were inter- 
rupted — by whom ? Dr Clark ! I thought he would pass, 
but no, he came up with a smiling face and we shook hands, 
and as in duty bound I said, " I suppose I ought to con- 
gratulate you on your M.P.-ship." I think he understood 
exactly what I meant. He was very anxious that I should 



"BAFFLED TO FIGHT BETTER" 405 

see him again. I don't suppose he is beyond conversion, even 
after his low and lost condition on this subject. But I have 
no time at present. 

The drift of Sir Donald Currie's story was impatience with 
everybody whatever, and especially with Chesson's people ; 
and a full statement of what he himself privately with his 
personal influence had done for South Africa. ... At 
present I have the impression that he wants to unite all the 
Dutch States with the Colony straight off, and that he thinks 
he could carry that. I did not ask him too much, but let 
him talk. 

It would be a very serious thing for South Africa if such 
a union took place at once. It is what we all desire and 
hope for in the future. It would be a bad job for the 
natives, with a responsible Government and the Queen at its 
head, and the majority mostly ignorant Dutchmen, swamping 
the Englishmen till their voice would not be heard, or at 
least their votes would count for nothing. 

At this time it was proposed that the Government 
should be persuaded to appoint a Commission or 
Committee, composed of men of different political 
sympathies, who should enquire into the whole South 
African question and report to the House of Commons. 
Mackenzie's correspondence shows that this proposal 
was backed up with great earnestness by such men 
as Mr Chamberlain and Sir John Gorst within the 
House, as well as by Dr Dale, Mr Stead, Mr Chesson, 
and many others of the general public. At one 
time there seemed a good prospect of obtaining 
this Commission, but the change of government which 
occurred that summer put a new face on everything, 
and this hopeful plan collapsed. 

In the middle of June, Mackenzie, for the first 
time, went down to visit his friend, the late Mr 
John Kirby, a retired sea captain, who lived at 
Woolstone, near Southampton. Mr Kirby, who had 
ultimately two sons in Africa, was a most earnest 
adherent and supporter of Mackenzie's cause. For 
Mackenzie himself he formed a singularly deep affec- 



4o6 



JOHN MACKENZIE 



tion, and insisted on contributing personal work, as 
well as money, to meet some part of the many ex- 
penses which Mackenzie incurred in the course of his 
prolonged agitation. At Mr Kirby's Mackenzie 
found himself within easy reach of London, and yet 
in surroundings which enabled him to concentrate 
his mind upon the task of writing his book. 

The following is an extract from a letter written to 
his son in Kimberley, April 7th 1886 : — 

Sir John Gorst has felt moved to take up the South 
African question. He asked me to come and have a talk 
on the subject, and I did so. He is to ask for a Committee. 
He put down a few names of those who would be examined. 
Sir H. Robinson, Warren, myself, Baden-Powell, Ralph 
Williams (whom he knows), missionaries at home, etc. 

I am to see Baden-Powell to-day. 

Those were true words that Gladstone used of Forster. 
He was a noble man. I had quite the idea that he was 
getting rapidly better, till Saturday when I called. Mr 
Loring was out. The man-servant, who knew me, said Mr 
Forster was very unwell, and two doctors were there with 
him. That would be his seizure from which he never rallied 
again. So rests a brave and strong spirit after life's battle 
has been well fought. I shall write for a ticket for the 
service in Westminster Abbey. 

The following extracts are from letters written at 
this time chiefly to his wife : 

II Queen Square, London, 
Zth Ap7il \ZZ(i. 

This is the evening on which Mr Gladstone is to unfold 
his Irish Bill. Mr Forster lies cold in his house in Eccle- 
stone Square. The service in the Abbey will take place 
at 12 to-morrow. I have got a ticket from Mr Loring. 

I had an interview with Mr Townsend of the Spectator. 
You know they took up the High Commissioner idea after 
having first objected to it. Had a long talk. Sent him 
copy of my paper \n Journal of Society of Arts. 

My great object is to avoid personalities, and to supplement 
the work for South Africa which I was permitted to do here 



"BAFFLED TO FIGHT BETTER" 40; 

some years ago. The time seems long, darling, for the work 
is a difficult one to write, and there are these other very 
important matters cropping up which need to be attended 
to. 

II Queen Square, London, 
12nd April 1886. 

I dined with Guy Dawnay and his brother. Col. Methuen, 
and Mr Wodehouse a few evenings ago. Mr Wodehouse is 
son of late Sir Philip, and takes great interest in Cape affairs. 
We had a pleasant evening. That is a circle into which 
Chesson's influence does not extend. Indeed they don't 
approve of him at all, and I have to stick up for him. 

II Queen Square, London, 
T.'jth May 1886. 

If I succeed in attracting greater attention to the country 
and get the Protectorate established up to the Zambesi, and 
the Crown Colony placed on a healthier basis separate from 
the Colony in the meantime, and if no offer comes to me of 
work in connection with that, then I shall be more than 
content to resume my direct work in the Gospel of Christ. 
But to leave this matter as it is now is not my duty. 

WooLSTONE, Southampton, 
22,rdjune 1886. 

I have been here about a week. Mr Kirby is a retired 
sea captain, and in comfortable circumstances. He has a 
son in South Africa, in Swaziland. Another in America. 
His daughter, when a little girl, fell from an old Abbey wall 
near this place, and was killed on the spot ; and the mother 
was seized with a stroke of paralysis in consequence, from 
which she never recovered. He has just the two grown-up 
sons, and they are both abroad. I knew him a little before 
I went out last time. He is very kind, and I have greater 
facility for writing here undisturbed than in London. I 
don't want to go down to Scotland now if I can help it — till 
I have settled as to the publication of the book. The 
enclosed letter will show that I have made a beginning. 

A friend of mine wrote to me — of course rather a sanguine 
one, and not Warren or Cullen — asking me if I would not go 
into Parliament, and saying that there was a way by which 



4o8 



JOHN MACKENZIE 



the half of the expense would be paid. Mr Kirby at once 
said if I would, he would pay the other half. But my head 
is on my shoulders all right, dearie, and I have got to write 
this book and see this African business set right, if it be 
God's will. And as to money for myself and for those 
depending on me — what He giveth I will gather. It is now 
late. Good-night. 

WooLSTONE, Southampton, 
July I, 1886. 

You don't imagine the work that is before me here. I 
only see it in its fulness at times. It is a great work, and 
one which will remain. It has no reference — no necessary 
reference — to myself, or my own employment in after years. 
That I leave in God's hands. I am Jesus Christ's man- 
servant. He will not leave me without guidance. 

London,/«/k9, 1886. 

That answer to Sir Hercules Robinson on the High 
Commissionership comes to be a big thing, reaching to 
eighteen pages of foolscap. I have written it three times, 
and am just about to send it in. Warren and Baden-Powell 
have seen it, and speak highly of it. So does Chesson, who 
read it carefully over one afternoon. I may work it into an 
article in the Contefnporary^ or perhaps reserve it for the 
concluding part of the book. 

In early autumn Mackenzie accepted appointment 
for deputation w^ork on behalf of the London Mission- 
ary Society, and was able also to spend some time 
with his eldest daughter on a visit to his friend, Mr 
Charles G. Oates of Meanwoodside, for the purpose of 
attending the Leeds Festival of Music. 

The following extracts from letters to his wife throw 
some light upon his work during this period : 



I 



Oakland, Oct. 7, 1886. 

The Bradford people asked me to go back and dine on 

their market day at the Liberal Club, and meet a number of 

people. I did so, and was considerably encouraged. Public 

opinion is not where it was in 1883. The Radicals are now 



"BAFFLED TO FIGHT BETTER" 409 

determined to have a Colonial policy. Some of the old 
people remain on the old lines. I was planted alongside one 
of these at dinner, and he went to business at once by asking, 
Did I think the English Government should protect every 
Englishman who went beyond our borders, for his own 
profit ? I told him I had acted out my views on that point 
by refusing to ask for assistance when shut up in Kuruman. 
But that was not the question. Was Africa to grow by 
peaceful and orderly means, or by filibustering ? The alder- 
man became much more reasonable and friendly, but con- 
versions in cases such as his are hardly to be looked for. 

II Queen Square, London, 
7.^th Nov. 1886. 

Loring has asked me if I won't undertake to lecture for 
the Imperial Federation League (paid of course). I said in 
reply the " burden " on me was that of South Africa. My 
first work was the book. I hoped to see South African 
affairs on a better footing. 

II Queen Square, London, 
2nd Dec. 1886. 

When I have anything definite about publishing I shall let 
you know. Do not be anxious on that score. It is one of 
the things which have been rolled away from my path, as 
more than one friend has come forward to say they will bear 
the risk of publishing the book, in case its subject should be 
so far forgotten as to be regarded as riskful by the publishers. 
I am nearly done with the writing now. But the appearance 
of a long answer from Sir Hercules Robinson to my High 
Commissionership memo, compels further writing and atten- 
tion to that part. 

I am glad to have written so copiously. I hope to turn it 
to good account. 

1 1 Queen Square, London, 
2zrd Dec. 1886. 

I had no idea it would take so long, altho', of course, I did 
not really know. I think we may say, " All is well," at the 
end of the year. We have health ; the children are well and 
doing well. I do sincerely humble myself for the poor kind 
of life one lives when engrossed as I have been. I have 



4IO JOHN MACKENZIE 

been like a watch which needs winding, and then goes 
straight on. The night's rest, the meals, daily work, and the 
book — with some necessary attention to passing events, 
especially if they relate to South Africa. 

I always think your time has been harder than mine. 
Here in London I do feel lonely. I tire of it very much, but 
there is nothing for it but to go on. 

The new year w^as brought in, as usual, at Portobello, 
and the first half of 1887 was again almost completely 
devoted to the finishing of his book, on which he had 
been at work since his arrival in England from the 
Cape. 

But Mackenzie found time to carry on correspon- 
dence with many people, and his education of the 
Colonial Office. Early in the year he sent to the 
Colonial Secretary, Sir Henry Holland (afterwards 
Lord Knutsford), a communication which led the 
latter to say that he was " not prepared to recom- 
mend the assumption by this country of the great 
amount of interference in and direct responsibility for 
the details of extra Colonial affairs in South Africa 
which your letters appear to advocate." This led 
Mackenzie to send in the following strongly worded 
protest : — 

Portobello, Scotland, 
Sth April 1887. 

Dear Sir Henry, — I was sorry to receive your official reply 
to my letter, and after some days consideration I have 
thought it my duty to lay the following considerations before 
you privately. 

I wish to state to you the opinion, which is based on 
considerable knowledge, that the position taken up in your 
letter will be condemned by the conscience and sense of 
duty of the English public, who engaged in the Bechuanaland 
Protectorate and insisted on supporting it by the Bechuana- 
land Expedition. In the estimation of the English public 
the " direct responsibility " from which you shrink, is already 
devolved on you by the extension of the Protectorate in 1885. 
You will allow me to say that I do not think you give full 



"BAFFLED TO FIGHT BETTER" 411 

weight to that very important action taken by the Liberal 
Government, especially when coupled with the statement 
made by Lord Derby to the effect that a Protectorate really 
amounted to annexation (I am quoting this from memory, 
but have no doubt of its correctness). These responsibilities 
devolve upon you now, and I do not desire to impose on Her 
Majesty's Government fresh obligations, but ask you to face 
and to discharge those already incurred. 

I hold firmly that it is of the very essence of an economical 
administration in South Africa that there should be the early 
assumption of authority and control of the land settlement in 
native territories. Without this you must expend English 
money in putting down abuses which my plan would enable 
you to prevent. 

The Imperial Government occupies a certain position in 
South Africa, and has assumed certain responsibilities. I 
have suggested a method by which these responsibilities 
might be discharged in a way satisfactory to both Colonists 
and natives, while it is economical as to Imperial expenditure, 
and meets that conscientious sense of duty which the English 
public has strongly expressed on the subject. Now the plans 
which I propose may or may not be wise, but the shrinking 
from responsibility has been the great cause of our trouble in 
South Africa, of our low position in the eyes of Colonists, 
and of our expenditures of Imperial money. England is 
already responsible in such countries as those to which I 
have referred, and the attitude of blinking this responsibility 
I humbly but earnestly submit is unwise and expensive. 

I was grieved to find the word " interference " used in your 
letter with reference to proposed Imperial administration of 
extra Colonial affairs. It is at least an unhappy expression 
to term the performance of such a duty " interference," when 
native Chiefs and people beg the Imperial Government as 
the Supreme Power to assist them in the administration of 
their country, and when loyal and intelligent Colonists 
earnestly ask that this course be adopted. Please to re- 
member that the alternative to this " interference," namely, 
"letting alone," has landed us again and again in heavy 
Imperial expenditure. 

In my opinion our success in South Africa depends upon 
the discharge, for some time, by the Imperial Government, of 
those very duties in native territories which appear to you at 
present to deserve the name of " interference." May I take 



412 JOHN MACKENZIE 

the liberty to ask you to reconsider the last sentence of your 
letter and thus avoid, in so many words, abjuring those very 
duties and responsibilities which the English public certainly 
desire Her Majesty's Government to perform in South Africa, 
and which were so fully acknowledged, upheld, and developed 
by Her Majesty's Liberal Government in 1885. 

I make this communication in all friendliness and in strict 
confidence. The public verdict upon the question at issue 
will not be difficult to understand when it is given, and I 
hope in a few weeks to publish a work on the question ' of 
our policy in South Africa. 

In April of this year (1887), he found himself 
within sight of the end, and went down to Montrose, 
the home of his eldest son, to complete his work 
there. He was thus removed from the distraction of 
daily correspondence, daily calls, summonses to meet- 
ings, and the other innumerable interruptions which 
interfered with his progress. At Montrose, he re- 
mained for nearly four months, and his son had for 
the first time an opportunity to watch him at close 
quarters. He was struck with his immense capacity 
for concentrated hard work. He often rose early, and 
was standing at his desk before breakfast ; and he 
would work continuously until nine or ten o'clock at 
night, with intermissions only for meals and a regular 
walk in the late afternoon. He worked very system- 
atically, gathering his material and arranging it with 
very great care. His son went over the entire book 
in manuscript page by page ; nearly every paragraph 
was separately considered, and it was Mackenzie's 
request that the severest criticism should be applied, 
not only to the mere matter of expression, but to the 
spirit and substance of his narratives and arguments. 
These things he discussed with the utmost simplicity 
and earnestness, and showed deep anxiety to see the 
point of every criticism or suggestion before deciding 
upon it. He took immense pains to make his book 
a final authority on South African affairs so far as he 



"BAFFLED TO FIGHT BETTER" 413 

dealt with them, and to secure accuracy at every point. 
As many of the chapters necessarily dealt with delicate 
personal affairs, he determined to make no statement 
for which he could not refer to an authority. He was 
thoroughly aware that in writing this kind of book he 
probably destroyed all chance of any future appoint- 
ment under Government, but on that, with his char- 
acteristic shrug of the shoulders, he said, " I am not in 
this for that sort of thing, I am only anxious that the 
facts should be driven home to the English mind, in 
order that they may do the right thing in and for 
South Africa." The result of his prolonged labours 
appeared in the autumn of that year, 1887, under the 
title " Austral Africa, Losing it or Ruling it : Being 
Incidents and Experiences in Bechuanaland, Cape 
Colony, and England." It was a large work in two 
volumes, extending to more than a thousand pages in 
all, with a very complete map, many illustrations and 
photographs. In the preface he states the object that 
lay before his mind in this and all his labours. 

" That object is, on the one hand, to deliver South 
Africa from the calamities, and England from the 
expense, heart-rending, and discords, hitherto attend- 
ing the ' Hammer-and-Tongs Policy' and the equally 
disastrous policy of * shirking ' ; and on the other hand, 
to save the empire from having an ill-secured dominion 
or an ill-disposed because neglected population close 
to its most important naval station." The entire work 
is divided into six books. Book I. is entitled, " Illus- 
trations of Native Life and European Expansion," and 
contains a large amount of information regarding 
Bechuana tribes, which is available nowhere else. He 
also describes at length the relation of the British 
Government to Bechuanaland between 1876 and 
1883. Book II. is entitled "The Bechuanaland Pro- 
tectorate — incidents and adventures among the Free- 
booters." This is an account in seven chapters of his 



414 JOHN MACKENZIE 

own Deputy Commissionership. In Book III., which 
he calls " Backing Out," he takes eight chapters to 
describe in full detail the history of the machinations 
which tripped him up, and resulted in the confusion of 
Bechuanaland and the triumph of the Transvaal. 
With Book IV. he enters upon the second volume, 
and in seven chapters describes " The Bechuanaland 
Expedition under Sir Charles Warren." This only 
carries the story to Mafeking. In Book V. he 
completes the narrative of Sir Charles's work in 
Bechuanaland, and unfolds the influences which led to 
the premature recall of the Special Commissioner. 
Book VI. consists of four chapters, on " The Imperial 
Government in South Africa — the Past, the Present, 
and the Future." This is a judicial and compre- 
hensive survey of the relation of Great Britain to that 
portion of the Empire. After stating the main 
features of the past work of England in South Africa, 
he goes on to explain the " unrecognised law " which 
has ever governed the spread of Europeans in that 
region ; he then discusses Cape politics in order to 
show at once the natural range of the influence of 
that Colony and the limits within which, for its own 
sake and for the sake of all South Africa, this influence 
should be restricted. He closes his work with a 
chapter on " The Sum of the Whole Matter — Imperial 
Duties and Imperial Methods." His last pages are 
written with the deepest feeling, but in the simplest 
and most direct fashion. He describes the future of 
South Africa in the light of the policy which he has 
advocated. " Like every true vision of the future," he 
says, " mine ends in peace, and not in war." 
" Assuredly, as England has abolished duelling, and 
still retains her honour and her self-respect, so will the 
savage arbitrament of war be discredited and disused 
the world over, when the thoughts of the victorious 
Galilean shall have become the code of the world. 



"BAFFLED TO FIGHT BETTER" 415 

Then the contests of men will consist in the noble 
emulations of literature, art, commerce, and industry ; 
in all of which Austral Africa will have its share. I 
see these things with the eye of the soul ; they will 
surely come to pass. I pray to be permitted to see 
some of them with the bodily eye also." 



CHAPTER XVI 

ENGLAND THE REJECTION OF A PROPHET 

(1888-1889) 

At the dawn of the year 1888 Mackenzie saw and 
felt on all sides the influence of his book. Reviews 
were appearing all over the country week by week; 
and month by month. Freed from his heavy task, 
and helped by its results, Mackenzie was now able 
to undertake the agitation of his cause on a wider 
scale, and in a greater variety of ways, than had 
been possible hitherto. The supreme aim before 
him was, as we have seen, to secure the separation 
of the offices of High Commissioner for South 
Africa and Governor of the Cape Colony. 

The following extracts from a letter to his wife 
show the manner in which he resumed the campaign 
early in the new year : — 

II Queen Square, 
London, i^thjany. 1888. 

As I said, I got here all right on Thursday morning, and 
found a letter from Mr H. O. Arnold Forster, and a card 
from Mr Loring, both asking to see me specially, and soon. 
There was also a note from L. M. S., asking me to give an 
address to their Young Men's Missionary Band, which meets 
in the Mission House every month. I corrected the proof, 
and consented to give this address. 

On calling for Loring I found (as H. O. Arnold Forster's 
letter had told me) that they two were looking forward to 
meeting Lord Rosebery to-day, and having a talk with him 
about South Africa, and especially about the High Com- 
missionership. I met Arnold Forster on Friday at his office 
at Cassels' Place. On both occasions I had a long talk with 
416 



THE REJECTION OF A PROPHET 417 

them, answering all imaginable difficulties, etc., as best I 
could. They have also got between them the pamphlet 
which Mr Kirby published, and that last long statement 
which the Colonial Office did not publish, and other 
things. 

Tuesday evening. — The enclosed letter has been in my 
pocket for the last two days, waiting for time to put down 
result of Loring's and Arnold Forster's interview with Lord 
Rosebery. They were pleased with their visit on the whole, 
and have sent Lord R. my book, marking certain passages 
for him to read. He seems to have answered them very 
guardedly, perhaps sceptically, on some matters ; but pro- 
fessed his entire ignorance of the question. The thing is, 
therefore, still in progress so far as he is concerned ; that is 
all that can be said. 

I am dining at Lady Walker's to-morrow, Wednesday. 
To-day when I came home from my wanderings I found 
a note from Lady Seafield, brought by her servant, inviting 
me to dine with them on Friday, and I'm going. Sir C. 
Warren is to be there, she told me. Really Lady S. is as 
friendly as friendly could be. I am thankful for it. 

I have seen the Amatonga Deputation, but I shall not fill 
up this page with them. I reserve for it a very striking piece 
of news which my friend, Sir Charles Mills, the agent of the 
Cape Colony in England, told me. I let him talk for full 
half-an-hour or more on his own subjects, and then, on our 
feet now, I led him on to talk of the High Commissioner- 
ship. He said first, "They'll never do it." I said, "No, not 
till they are told by the English people to do it, and then they'll 
do it sharp." I got him to talk about it, and at last he said, 
" I wish you all success, Mackenzie. A splendid thing if you 
can carry it. The Marquis of Lome should be your first 
High Commissioner. I may tell you between ourselves that 
I asked him if he would not go out to South Africa, and he 
distinctly declined to go out as Governor of the Cape Colony, 
but said he would go as High Commissioner ; and that the 
Princess would go too." Just think, dearie, what that 
amounts to in the education of public opinion. No one 
thought of such a position as the Marquis takes up, some 
time ago. I do think I may claim something in connection 
with that. I wrote one memorandum with the express pur- 
pose in my own mind of preventing the Marquis from going 
out as Governor of the Cape, without directly referring to it. 

2 D 



4i8 JOHN MACKENZIE 

Sir C. Mills told me this with a feeling of disappointment at 
his own want of success, but he then brightened up and said, 
" If he goes out, and you get a good Governor for the Cape, 
then the thing will be done." 

Now say that he was saying pleasing things to me, what I 
care for is the fact that he asked Lome, and Lome refused. 
It is a great fact in the history of this movement. 

On February loth he delivered a lecture before the 
Kensington Branch of the Imperial Federation League. 
The President of the Branch, Sir Rawson Rawson, was 
in the chair, and the meeting was very successful. 
Mackenzie gave the following breezy description of 
it to his wife : — 

II Queen Square, London, 
Saturday. 

Dearest, — The lecture has been delivered, and every- 
body except myself expressed great pleasure. 

There was a good audience for London, especially as it was 
a bitterly cold night. The kind of people was what you would 
call " superior," you know. There were a good many quite 
unknown to me. There were others whose faces I had seen 
elsewhere ; and then there were not a few whom I reckon as 
personal friends. But to be historical ! I went (dressed) to 
the Hall at 5.30 by appointment, to see that everything was 
right on the platform. I arranged a music stand for MS., 
and so on. Then went over to Loring's, where I had time 
in his study to look over my notes. Dined at 7, Mr and 
Mrs O'Brien being the other guests. Mrs O'Brien is one of 
the late Mr Forster's (adopted) daughters. Like her sisters, 
she is very sweet and nice. After dinner, to the Town Hall. 
I spoke from the notes. I could see them fairly well, and 
stood after a time with the pointer in my hand, to describe 
the map. The lecture was too long, or rather the Chairman 
took a longer time than one would have expected, when the 
hour to begin with was 8.30. So I had to hasten over the 
latter part of the lecture ; when I said I was doing so the 
people applauded as if to say, " Go on," but I saw for myself 
that the time was getting late. 

Sir Rawson Rawson greeted me warmly on my getting on 
the platform, and Sir Henry Barkly came forward and shook 
hands quite as with an old friend. 



THE REJECTION OF A PROPHET 419 

I saw Dunn, Rider Haggard, Mrs Reed and young Guy 
Reed, the brother of Mr Betts, Mr James Buchan, Mr and 
Mrs Wm. Simpson and party. Colonel Tracy and Miss Tracy, 
Robertson, Steele (Port Elizabeth) ; Maynard (your friend), 
Prebendary Tucker, of Society for Propagation of the Gospel, 
&c., &c. 

Rider Haggard spoke very well — certainly in a most 
appreciative and complimentary way of myself : I had 
" saved Bechuanaland and the Bechuanas, and if a man 
did only that he had done a great work." He started on 
this track by saying there was one thing which I had 
omitted, and which looked formidable for a moment. I 
spoke to him afterwards for a minute, only in whispers, 
however. I hope to see him by-and-by. 

Wm. Dunn spoke, and did so tellingly, as a Cape 
merchant, as to the value of the policy which I was 
bringing forward. He referred also to an early acquaint- 
ance with me and my young bride so many years ago ! 

Mr Mackarness, who was once in South Africa, and who 
writes letters in the Times on that subject, spoke. Loring 
had told me that he was pro-Robinson in his views as to the 
High Commissioner, so I got Loring to write to him to say 
that I should be very glad if he came and stated his views 
without personalities, and left the public to decide. He said 
in a few words that he wanted to know who was to pay the 
High Commissioner, where he was to live, and what he was to 
do. But I really think he had been shaken by the lecture, 
because he hastened to congratulate me on the lecture as a 
whole, and on my other writings and efforts in behalf of 
South Africa, and that he had always much pleasure in 
reading my communications. 

Sir Henry Barkly seconded the vote of thanks to me, 
which was proposed by the Chairman. 

Sir Henry backed me up out and out. He said, in his 
opinion, my views were thoroughly sound, and such as 
ought to be adopted. If there had been time he could 
have illustrated by his own personal experience. As to 
myself personally, I had had no chance of putting my 
views into practice, and he hoped that in that extension 
of our Protectorate which must take place, my services 
would be brought into requisition. This was meant in 
great kindness, but I had rather he had not said it. 

In replying, I thanked them for their indulgence for such 



420 JOHN MACKENZIE 

a length of time. I said, with, I suppose, a grin on my face, 
that by far the nicest part of the lecture was that which they 
had not heard ! 

Loring was delighted, and so was Mrs L. She did not 
know when she had enjoyed a lecture so much. Mrs 
O'Brien sent a message by her to say she thanked me for 
Mrs Forster, for some true things I said about her husband 
at the outset. 

Mr Dunn came up and asked where you were, that he 
might shake hands with you. He was disappointed when I 
told him. 

Now if this is not a full and particular account I don't 
know, and, if I am not a sublimely good person for retailing 
it all, I wonder who can put in a claim to be good or obedient 
to orders. 

Early in April it was given out that the Govern- 
ment had decided not to establish a High Com- 
missionership, such as Mackenzie and the South 
African Committee had been attempting to secure ; 
but this decision, or the attempt to reach it, seems 
to have been shaken considerably by an important 
review of " Austral Africa," which appeared in the 
Times^ and a very powerful leading article in the 
same paper, entitled, " Africa after the Scramble." 
In both of these the Tunes spoke very strongly in 
favour of Mackenzie's policy. But at the same time 
Mackenzie was made aware that the opposition from 
Cape Town was becoming very bitter. It threatened 
to assume the form of a personal controversy when 
Captain Bower dipped his fingers into it. This 
Imperial Secretary of South Africa had written to 
a well-known English Member of Parliament, assur- 
ing him that the separation of the offices would 
destroy the country, and begging him not to be 
misled by an enthusiast. His further characterisa- 
tion of the enthusiast was such as led Mackenzie 
to assert that it was " meant to undermine me, and 
to destroy me." 

In the spring of this year Mackenzie first entered 



THE REJECTION OF A PROPHET 421 

into direct correspondence with Lord Rosebery, and 
for a time it seemed as if this leader of Imperial 
plans would be induced to master the South African 
problem, and become the promoter of Imperialism 
there. As the following letters will show, however, 
the wide-awake, but cautious Earl, in spite of his 
interest in the question, could not be induced to 
give it more than casual attention : — 

7 WoBURN Place, 
London, \st March 1888. 

I have just come from a long interview with Lord Rosebery 
by invitation. Loring went with me, and was present. He, 
Loring, was well satisfied with the interview. Lord R. professed 
his ignorance, but I found he had got some working know- 
ledge of the subject. We went at it up and down, over 
and across, for, I suppose, more than an hour. He spoke 
very sensibly, and his objections and questions were such 
as one had pleasure in answering. I seemed to satisfy 
him on each point, but perhaps that would be too sanguine 
a view. 

I have been asked to address the Chamber of Commerce 
of London. I mentioned this, and he said he thought I 
should. Would he attend the meeting, and speak or pre- 
side? "Well, no, he had to take his wife to the Continent 
soon. He might attend it." Loring says this is near enough 
in the meantime, and that possibly he will come and speak 
when formally asked. So I am going to write to our friend 
Dunn, and ask him to introduce me to Mr Tritton, the 
present chairman of the Chamber, and have a consultation as 
to what should be done. 

In the meantime keep a lookout for questions in the 
House of Lords as to the High Commissionership. I 
expect Lord R. will put one soon. He has already put 
one as to the Delagoa Bay railway, which had an important 
sentence in it. 

Then the Imperial Federation League's political com- 
mittee at its meeting yesterday has recommended the League 
to take up this Austral African question as League business. 
This is a most important decision, but it will not be ratified 
till a meeting of the General Executive Committee takes 
place. It is likely to be carried. 



422 JOHN MACKENZIE 

Last night I lectured to a Christian Young Men's Club at 
Bloomsbury. Had the large map. 

7 WoBURN Place, 
London, 14M March 1888. 

I have received such a strong, ably written letter, from the 
editor of the Graha7?is town Journal this week. It was shown 
to Lord Rosebery, who read it with great interest. His ques- 
tion as to the duplex offices was in writing, and handed in. 
Lord Kimberley came to him, and "wired in" on the other 
side, retaining matters as they are. Lord R. withdrew his 
question, Kimberley and he being front bench men together 
on the same side. Lord R. retains his opinion. I wrote him 
last night, and wait the result. This is strictly private. 

A definite attempt was made to secure Lord 
Rosebery as chairman at the approaching meeting, 
which led to the following letter from him : — 

Lansdowne House, Berkeley Square, 
London, i^th March 1888. 

Dear Mr Mackenzie, — Many thanks for your letter, and 
for the former one which I ought to have acknowledged. 
Both of them interested me extremely. I incline to think 
that a question with regard to the Cape would be best asked 
in the House of Commons. 

With regard to the dates you mention, I am afraid none 
of them would suit me, as I propose going abroad at the end 
of next week, so that I shall have to read and not listen to 
your address. — Believe me, yours very truly, 

Rosebery. 

P.S. — I was much interested in the letter Loring showed 
me, and am grateful to you for allowing me to see it. 

One of the most important of all Mackenzie's 
addresses was that which he delivered on May 14th, 
1888, before the London Chamber of Commerce. 
Mr Chamberlain occupied the chair, and the meeting 
was both large and very influential. In his opening 
speech Mr Chamberlain, with his marvellous gift of 
exposition, set forth the central problem of South 
African policy. He showed the extreme danger, 



^ 



.THE REJECTION OF A PROPHET 423 

alike to the Empire and to South Africa, which 
would result from the policy of neglect. 

Now what is the alternative? There is only one alterna- 
tive, and that is, that we should accept our obhgations and 
responsibilities. We should maintain firmly and resolutely 
our hold over the territories that we have already acquired, 
and we should offer freely our Protectorate to those friendly 
chiefs and people that are stretching out their hands towards 
us and seeking our protection and our interference. 

He shrunk from committing himself regarding the 
separation of the two great offices ; that, he said, 

is a matter which must be left to the responsible officers 
of the Queen, who have much better opportunities of know- 
ledge than any that I can possess ; but one thing I do say, 
that if we are once for all to recognize our obligations in 
regard to this great Continent, we must do so in pursuance of 
an Imperial policy, and not of a Colonial policy, if in any 
respect that differs from ours. 

The title of Mackenzie's address was " Austral 
Africa, Extension of British Influence in Trans- 
Colonial Territories." 

He devoted, as usual, the first part of his lecture 
to a description of the South African Colonies and 
States. 

The second part of the lecture described " Trans- 
Colonial Native Territories." In the paragraph which 
dealt with railway communication, he strongly advocated 
the immediate consideration, both for commercial and 
political reasons, of " a dominating north-going railway 
through the Colony of Bechuanaland, so that the trade 
of the richest country in Austral Africa — a veritable 
Ophir of the olden time, with its gold and its iron, its 
cotton and its rice — may be secured for English 
commerce, and for our fellow subjects in South 
Africa." 

The third portion of the lecture was entitled, " Place 
and Work of the Imperial Government." After 



424 JOHN MACKENZIE 

describing some of the influences which had interfered 
with the development of direct Imperial administration 
since 1884, he came to make his two great definite 
proposals, viz., first, " that the Imperial administration 
should be extended to all Khame's territory, as pro- 
posed by Khame himself to Sir Charles Warren, and 
secondly, the appointment of an Imperial High Com- 
missioner who should be unencumbered with any local 
office. This, he maintained, would not involve any 
" interference with the present rights and privileges of 
the Colonists," nor would it take the form of an 
" abrupt resolution," but rather of a " necessary 
growth." The lecturer further discussed the reasons 
for making this change at that time, and some of the 
objections which were urged against it. 

Mackenzie's address was followed by a public dis- 
cussion, the first speaker being Sir Charles Warren, 
who rose to move a vote of thanks to the reader of 
the paper. He was followed by Sir George Baden- 
Powell. A discordant note was introduced into the 
discussion by Sir Henry de Villiers of Cape Colony, 
whose speech, however^ practically admitted the need 
for the very changes which Mackenzie advocated. 
This was at once cleverly pointed out by Mr Arnold 
Forster. Mackenzie's warm friend, Mr Walter Searle, 
President of the Cape Town Chamber of Commerce, 
very earnestly advocated the position taken by the 
lecturer. 

The following letter was written by Sir Henry 
Barkly, formerly High Commissioner for South 
Africa, and Governor of Cape Colony, who was 
unable to attend the meeting : — 

South Kensington, 
\2ih May 1888. 

Dear Mr Mackenzie, — I am very sorry not to be able to 
attend on Monday, and hear your address on " The Extension 
of British Influence in Trans-Colonial Territories." 



THE REJECTION OF A PRPOHET 425 

Had I done so, and been called on to take part in the 
subsequent description, I should have urged, as I did at 
Kensington Town Hall, that it was better, whenever any 
fresh annexation of native territory took place, that it 
should be in the first instance under the sole control of 
an authority directly responsible to the Secretary of State 
for the Colonies ; and, further, that, believing your views 
as to the arrangements which ought to be made in regard 
to the introduction of European settlers into such territories, 
to be the result of much experience and reflection, I was still 
in hopes that you would some day be afforded a fair oppor- 
tunity of carrying them into practice, in the course of those 
extensions of British rule towards the Zambesi, which appear 
inevitable. — Believe me, Yours very truly, 

Henry Barkly. 

In July news came by cablegram, announcing that 
a meeting of Government officials had been held at 
Mafeking, to discuss the project of a Bechuanaland 
railway. Mackenzie in referring to this, says : — 

The movement must be favoured by Sir Hercules Robin- 
son, which is surely good. I fear, however, that he, or rather 
Bower, has some trick behind, in regard to handing the terri- 
tory over to the Colony, in connection with this very railway 
making. 

Glasgow, Aug. 30//% 1888. 

I have been unusually busy, indeed chained to my desk, 
since I came down. I have just been once to the Exhibition, 
and have not found time to look up a single Glasgow merchant 
as yet. My paper for the British Association is ready, but 
the amount of correspondence just now caused by the tactics 
adopted at the Cape is very great and very imperative. 

You would see the result of the publication of my memo, 
on the High Commissionership. Another despatch from Sir 
H. Robinson, and a minute from his Ministers' Resolutions, 
and from the Cape Parliament, deprecating the change which 
I propose, and which the British public desire. 

I enclose the tactical reply to this clever move at the Cape 
— " a put-up job," as the Cape Times calls it. I hope to get 
this really extensively signed by both parties, and outside 
Parliament also. If Bechuanaland is made a Crown Colony 



426 JOHN MACKENZIE 

really aftd in good faith^ we shall see the Cape speedily lose 
all liking for the High Commissionership. What they mean 
is land ; that must be kept for Imperial needs and Imperial 
management. When they are assured of this at the Cape the 
victory will be complete. 

1 1 Queen Square, 
\ St Nov. 1888. 

Rhodes and the Argus have had a fling at me. — Rhodes in 
an electioneering speech, and the Argus backing him up. 
Nothing of the slightest importance, and the Argus says I 
am going on slandering the Colony over here. I may send 
out a few lines, just to tone the matter a little. Not sure yet. 

Had a pleasant Sunday at Warlies, Sir Fowell going to 
collect names for memo. Offers his house for a drawing- 
room meeting, should that be necessary. 

1 1 Queen Square, 
^th Nov. 1888. 

I have just come from Dr Parker's, where I stayed for 
communion, which I always enjoy. It is always a time when 
one can lay one's case before the good Lord as it stands 
between this time and next communion season. Thank God, 
there is always something done, something achieved. May He 
help for the next month. 

II Queen Square, 
London, 14M Nov. i 



I have been to a meeting of the African Section of the 
Chamber of Commerce. They have passed a resolution 
unanimously against annexation of Bechuanaland to the Cape, 
but it is not valid formally till it has been sanctioned by the 
General Executive of the Chamber. Then a Deputation will 
go to Government on the matter. This is so much work done. 

In September Mackenzie read a paper before the 
Geographical Section of the British Association, which 
held its meeting that year at Bath. He was very well 
received, as the following extract from a letter to one 
of his sons will show : — 

Bath, wth Sept. 1888. 

Get a look at the Times for Tuesday nth, and you will 
see that I have had a very good reception here. The large 



THE REJECTION OF A PROPHET 427 

Guild Hall was filled, and they were really very kind. It is to 
appear in abstract in the Royal Geographical Society's paper. 
Mr Bates, the Secretary, whom I know, was very well pleased 
with it. Its publication was recommended in a short speech 
by good and kind Sir Robert Fowler, and also referred to by 
the Chairman of the Section, Sir C. Wilson. Judge of my 
great pleasure, in turning away from the recently uncovered 
Roman Baths yesterday afternoon, to meet dear Mr Neild, 
who is here, and his family. He simply carried me off bodily, 
and I spent the afternoon with them, part of it being at a 
Friend's house in a garden-party. The Friends are delightful 
people. I admire them very much, and love them. 

On November 29th he delivered a lecture at 
Newcastle, and spent Christmas time at Portobello 
with his family. 

If 1888 was a busy year, 1889 was a year which 
almost crushed his life. At its beginning he saw the 
interest of the British public in South African affairs 
steadily increasing. Wide circles had now been taught, 
and were inspired with his views, and these circles 
comprised the most intelligent elements in the com- 
munity, those who were directly interested in Parlia- 
mentary affairs, those whose minds were fast awakening 
to the splendour of Britain's Imperial relationships and 
destiny, and those who looked upon South Africa as a 
field for future commercial enterprise. 

Mackenzie felt that his plea for recognising Austral 
Africa as a great dominion had taken hold of the 
public imagination. He knew that his arguments 
from logic and history in favour of an Imperial High 
Commissionership for all South Africa were unanswer- 
able, and he found men of experience always in his 
favour. Strong supporters of the Government were 
on his side. The Chambers of Commerce of the 
leading cities were on his side. The great majority 
of the newspapers were on his side. It really looked 
as if the British Dominion was about to be established 
in that year of grace, 1889, from Cape Town to the 



428 JOHN MACKENZIE 

Zambesi, without noise or war or expenditure of much 
money, by the final adoption of a great purpose, and 
the final establishment of a definite policy. If at that 
time he had seen the announcement that the Govern- 
ment would send out a new High Commissioner for 
all South Africa and also separate Governors for the 
Cape Colony and Natal, an Administrator for the 
Crown Colony of Bechuanaland, and another British 
representative to guide the development of Matabele- 
land, this ardent servant of God and his country would 
have felt that he had accomplished what during these 
years he had lived for, and that it had been worth 
while to live for its accomplishment. But " the 
Assyrian came down," and made havoc of all his 
hopes. 

News reached England that Mr Rudd had visited 
the capital of Matabeleland, and obtained from the 
Chief the most remarkable concession known in South 
African history. Curious stories were afloat regarding 
the help which he received from important govern- 
ment officials in his efforts to secure the consent of 
Lobengula to his proposals. In South Africa itself 
there was an outcry among those newspapers which 
were yet free to cry out against such events. They 
argued that as Matabeleland had been declared to be 
within the sphere of British influence, and as a British 
representative had already visited it and entered into 
negotiations with its Chief, this concession, which gave 
the entire minerals of a vast and rich territory to one 
man, or a group of men, was a monopoly such as 
Britain ought to destroy. But protests were too late, 
and the results of this concession speedily became 
known. 

Feeling that the plot had begun to thicken, 
Mackenzie made various powerful efforts to persuade 
the Home Government to take definite action before 
new influences could be brought to bear upon it. On 



THE REJECTION OF A PROPHET 429 

February 15 th he sent a long letter to Lord Salisbury, 
making certain proposals regarding South Africa, 
which seemed to him to concern the Foreign Office as 
much as the Colonial Office. In this letter he began 
by describing the critical position of Great Britain in 
that region. The following significant sentences, 
the words of a true prophet, occur : — 

In South Africa at the present time, the question which 
is being decided by the persistent efforts of our opponents, 
and by our own action (and often by our want of action) is — 
Whether or not South Africa shall be English-speaking and 
owning the sway of England, or be a Dutch-speaking country, 
owning virtually the sway of a rival European Power ? There 
are, it is true, a few Dutch-speaking Republicans in South 
Africa, who bring themselves persistently before the public ; 
but however sincere they may be in their desire to establish 
a South African Independent Dutch-speaking Republic from 
the Zambesi to the Cape, the real alternatives are, whether 
the country shall remain under the influence of England, or 
come under that of another European Power. 

Now, Her Majesty's Government can assist materially in 
this vital matter at the present time, and that without inter- 
fering in any degree with the internal affairs of any Colony 
or of any self-governing republic. 

The first of his numbered paragraphs dealt with the 
need for developing South Central Africa north of the 
Cape Colony under a Lieutenant-Governor, " who shall 
be in direct communication with Her Majesty's Govern- 
ment." He pointed out that Sir Gordon Sprigg had 
admitted " that this great region could not be success- 
fully governed from Cape Town." 

In the second place, this would entail the formation 
of a more rational plan for the treatment of Bechuana- 
land than had yet been applied to other regions 
occupied by native tribes. 

And in all this there is no partiality towards the native, 
only simple justice. The Bechuana chiefs and people, in 
1885, expressed their welcome to the Imperial Power, and 
agreed to hand over the whole unoccupied portions of their 



430 JOHN MACKENZIE 

country to the Queen. They are prepared, therefore, for 
the occupation of their country in certain districts by white 
settlers, only that our recent shilly-shallying on this subject, 
and our present endeavours to prevent any such settlement 
have excited suspicion and uneasiness in their minds. They 
can have no doubt of the coming north of the white men. 
Our refusal to control their orderly settlement is justly calcu- 
lated to excite their uneasiness, as they know that the only 
alternative is brigandage and bloodshed. It is distinctly to 
this abstention that we owe the Grobelaar incident, which 
has not yet been settled. 

His third paragraph insisted that Great Britain 
must hold on to Bechuanaland for grave political 
reasons : — 

The Anti-Imperial party at the Cape have been very 
diligent of late, and they have had the advantage of receiv- 
ing assistance from unexpected quarters. But, after all, the 
strength of our position is that we do not interfere with 
internal Colonial affairs at all, we only hold on to those 
regions where the native inhabitants in the first instance 
laid us under obligations to them, and where our presence 
is of great consequence to British commerce and British 
influence in South Africa. 

The refusal of Cape Colony to assist in the build- 
ing of a railway through Bechuanaland was one of 
these reasons. 

The Colonial railway stopped short for years, scores of 
miles south of Kimberley. Why ? Because Kimberley was 
and is an English town. It was a commercial sacrifice, but 
a political pleasure, to keep it out in the desert, and the 
railway was carried through only in 1884 by the Colonial 
Government, at the earnest suggestion of the Imperial 
Government. Since that time Kimberley has supplied a 
market to the Colonial farmers all along the line, and 
doubtless they see that they lost severely by not having 
had the railway at an earlier date. At the same time, Mr 
Hofmeyr and other Anti-Imperial leaders are dead against 
railway extension to the British Colony of Bechuanaland, as 
they were to the British district of the Diamond-fields. 



THE REJECTION OF A PROPHET 431 

The fourth paragraph suggested a plan by which 
two results could be obtained. In the first place, 
Cape Colony would be stimulated to develop its 
railway system northwards, and, besides. Great Britain 
would acquire a shorter route into the interior of 
South Africa. This double result could be obtained 
if Lord Salisbury would negotiate with Germany for 
British control of the region lying between Walvisch 
Bay and South Bechuanaland. 

Walvisch Bay is one of the best harbours on all the 
South African coast. A waggon road, accompanied by well- 
sinking, from Walvisch Bay to Bechuanaland — followed in 
the course of time by a railway — would not be difficult of 
accomplishment, and would be of immense importance to 
Great Britain, politically and commercially. It would be a 
set-off to Delagoa Bay in Portuguese hands. The bare 
possibility of opening such communications would bring 
the Cape Colony to common sense as to its railway from 
Kimberley to Bechuanaland. The sharp alternative to their 
not making this connecting railway to the Bechuanaland 
border would be the loss to them of the northern trade. 
I have shown that opposition to Britain can carry some of 
their leaders a long distance in foolishness and disregard of 
the material interests of the Cape Colony, but the leverage 
of a threatened Walvisch Bay route of colonization and 
commerce into Bechuanaland would cause the Cape Colony 
railway from Kimberley to the southern border of Bechuana- 
land to be constructed without delay. 

Taking this last mentioned advantage alone, it would 
warrant Her Majesty's Government doing its utmost to 
obtain again South West Africa, and so repair an unaccount- 
able and inexcusable blunder of the Imperial Government 
some years ago. 

To his wife he writes as follows : — 

London, Feb. 22, 1889. 
We have had a very important meeting of the South 
African Committee to-day, Mr Chamberlain in the Chair, 
Lord Polwarth, Sir C. Warren, and a considerable number 
of M.P.s were present. Resolved, that a certain number be 
deputed to meet Lord Knutsford privately and have it out 



432 JOHN MACKENZIE 

with him, and see what they could get out of him. Were 
to report to another meeting, and if that is held not to be 
enough, to fight him. I had a good deal of speaking to- 
day, as Chamberlain brought it to real, hard, practical work 
at once, and Sir Fowell Buxton coolly turned to me and 
asked me what I would say to that. We had a long dis- 
cussion, and a very interesting one. There was never such 
a body of influence in favour of my views as at present. 
The Committee is really an influential one, and we may 
have some " events " soon. 

II Queen Square, 
/^th March 1889. 

The South African Committee had a meeting on Saturday, 
Mr Chamberlain in the Chair. They reported what had 
taken place in their interview with Lord Knutsford. I had 
heard the particulars before from Mr Loring. Consider- 
able progress has been made, but it needs great firmness on 
our part to prevent the Colonial Office swinging us all around 
— Chamberlain and all. I was asked to say what I thought 
of what had been done, and in order to give all present a 
right conception of the danger I said, looking at Mr 
Chamberlain, " I am thankful for what has been accom- 
plished, but I really see that, so far. Lord Knutsford has had 
the best of it." I then proceeded to back this up by show- 
ing where he had led them off" on side issues. I am to see 
Mr C. on Wednesday forenoon. 

Throughout the spring months of this year the 
controversy raged fierce in the public press and in 
political circles regarding the proposed South African 
Chartered Company. The concession obtained by 
Mr Rudd in the end of the preceding year had 
been made the basis for the gigantic scheme of Mr 
Cecil Rhodes. In this struggle Mackenzie, of course, 
had a prominent part ; and yet he was conscious all 
the while of fighting a losing battle, for Mr Rhodes 
made converts from among his own best supporters. 
They were not in the least conscious of departing 
from the principles for which they had already 
worked with him ; rather it seemed to many of the 
best of them that this scheme would go far to realise 



THE REJECTION OF A PROPHET 433 

his own dreams. For how could the proposed open- 
ing up of the unoccupied territories of Mashonaland 
and Matabeleland by means of the enormous capital 
which it was proposed to employ, do aught but good 
in establishing Imperial authority in South Africa ? 
Hard-headed, practical Englishmen, to whom the vast- 
ness of the commercial proposals appealed, seemed to 
consider Mackenzie's objections merely academic, and 
his fears groundless. In brief, as Mackenzie after- 
wards pointed out, his own years of hard labour in 
educating the British public regarding South Africa 
had prepared the way for the Chartered Company. 

Mackenzie feared for Bechuanaland, but Mr Rhodes 
assured Mr Albert Grey that he did not propose to 
take any part of Bechuanaland. And Mr Causton 
appeared before a certain philanthropic committee in 
London to assure them " that the new Company had 
been formed mainly in the interest of the natives and 
of missionaries, to prevent unprincipled white men 
from going in and ruining every one ! " 

The following remarks of Mr Alfred Milner, now 
Lord Milner, put the case very clearly from another 
point of view : — 

Whatever may be the personal sentiments of its 
managers, the force of circumstances will make the Company 
British. He must be a pessimist indeed who does not see 
that slowly but surely, and all the more surely because not 
with such fuss and conspicuousness as to alarm foreign 
nations, British influence is once more on the ascendant on 
the East Coast of Africa ; and the stronger we become north 
of the Zambesi the more essential we are to those who are 
pushing up to that river from the South. The Cape might 
be separatist, and South Africa by itself might be separatist, 
but a South Africa reaching up to the Zambesi, marching into 
foreign spheres of influence, and needing the protecting arm of 
Great Britain against Portuguese or German interference with 
its own development, will lean more and more on us. I 
think I see the development in Rhodes himself. As a purely 

2 E 



434 JOHN MACKENZIE 

Cape politician he was (is perhaps) Africander. As the 
author of enterprises which look far beyond the Cape and 
the Transvaal and reach to the Zambesi, and beyond the 
Zambesi, he must know (he is much too shrewd not to 
know) that, without Imperial backing, he is lost. 

All that could be said in favour of this policy, 
Mackenzie felt very deeply ; but his opposition was 
determined upon a knowledge of South African 
politics, whose real significance it was hard to com- 
municate even to the ablest minds in London. He 
saw that this movement had arisen amongst men 
whose statesmanship had already worked confusion in 
South Africa. Further, they w^ere in sympathy rather 
with the Dutch than the British spirit in their treat- 
ment of native questions. He saw also with great 
clearness, in spite of the protestations of Mr Rhodes 
and the confidence of those whom he persuaded — 
what subsequent events proved to be only too true — 
that the granting of this Charter would inevitably lead 
to the absorption of Bechuanaland by Cape Colony 
and the proposed Company. To Mackenzie's mind, 
as we have seen from his letters, Bechuanaland was 
the key to the Imperial position in South Africa. If 
Great Britain would seize that region, and under direct 
Imperial control make of it a great Crown Colony, the 
British position in South Africa w^ould be placed 
beyond all danger, either from a military or a political 
point of view. 

And last, but not least, Mackenzie held the pro- 
found conviction that the future of South Africa 
would be one thing, if its great native populations 
were placed under Imperial administration, and 
another thing if they were left to be controlled solely 
by the class of Europeans who held sway at that 
time in her States and Colonies. If the British South 
Africa Company succeeded in shaping South African 
politics so that direct Imperial authority over these 



THE REJECTION OF A PROPHET 435 

native regions should be destroyed, the future which 
he saw was dismal and dark indeed. 

As early as July, Mr Albert Grey, now Lord Grey, 
wrote to Mackenzie to say that after considerable 
hesitation he had agreed to accept a post on the 
directorate of the new Chartered Company. 

" I should have preferred, with you," he said, " a bolder 
Imperial policy, but as this is evidently beyond the thoughts 
and intentions of the present government, and as they have 
made up their minds to grant Rhodes a charter, it is, I think, 
desirable that one like myself who is in close sympathy with 
you and the South African Committee, should be upon the 
Board. I am very hopeful that the action of this Company 
may prove instrumental in developing and stimulating in a 
very great degree Imperial interests in South Africa." 

Late in the session of the House of Commons, and 
at the end of a long sitting, with a minimum of dis- 
cussion, the momentous step was taken of passing 
a bill which granted a royal charter to the British 
South Africa Company. This act empowered the 
Company to negotiate for and accept from native 
chiefs in Matabeleland and Mashonaland the right to 
exercise jurisdiction in those territories. 

During the summer of this year (1889) the Govern- 
ment had also sent out a new High Commissioner 
and Governor of Cape Colony in the person of Sir 
Henry Loch. Sir Henry Loch was a man of strong 
character and great experience, as well as firm 
integrity. One of the shrewdest of South African 
newspaper editors said of him, that his character 
was so high that he would probably find it necessary 
to resign his position before the completion of his 
term of office ; and this prophecy was fulfilled. But 
he went out before the charter was given to the 
British South Africa Company, and began his work 
at Cape Town before the complications arose which 
that charter created even there. 



436 JOHN MACKENZIE 

After the autumn holidays Mackenzie undertook 
to write an article on South African affairs, at the 
request of the editor of The Contemporary Review, 
This article appeared in the November number of 
that periodical, and extended to twenty-four pages. 
While it reviewed past history and political events, 
the most important portion was contained in the 
last ten pages, where he discussed the granting of 
the charter to the British South Africa Company ; 
and this not in any carping spirit, but by way of 
accounting for the fact that the charter had been 
given at a time when every one believed chartered 
companies to be an obsolete method of Imperial 
administration, and by way of warning the British 
public that it would be a gross injustice to extend 
the authority of this Company to Bechuanaland. He 
also discussed the necessity for the construction of a 
railway through Bechuanaland. The last section of 
the article is entitled " Imperial administration prior 
to local self-government," in which the case for the 
South African High Commissionership of a true kind 
was stated with exceptional clearness and vivacity. 

During the autumn Mackenzie also undertook a 
series of deputation services and addresses on behalf 
of the London Missionary Society. He arranged to 
give a public address in November at Manchester, 
upon the "Native Races and Liquor Traffic Com- 
mission," and at Liverpool before the Chamber of 
Commerce. But ere these engagements could be 
fulfilled, he was stricken suddenly at Berwick-on- 
Tweed. This occurred on Sunday morning, November 
24th, as he was concluding a public service in church. 
It was towards the end of his sermon that, as he 
afterwards described it, he suddenly felt as if a 
thousand needles were being driven rapidly into the 
back of his neck. The pain was excruciating, but 
with marvellous self-mastery he brought the sermon 



THE REJECTION OF A PROPHET 437 

quietly to an end, offered prayer, gave out a hymn, 
and pronounced the benediction. When he reached 
the vestry he collapsed. The physician who attended 
him immediately said that the effort he made after 
the stroke, had worked more mischief than all the 
preceding anxieties and labours which had brought 
it on. 

Mackenzie had been literally giving his life without 
grudging and without stint for the good of South 
Africa. Naturally a man of strong constitution, who 
had hardly known a day's illness for thirty years, 
he had brought this upon himself simply by carrying 
upon his heart the burdens of the races, both black 
and white, whose struggles he had watched and over 
whose future he had agonised. 

His engagements were all immediately cancelled, 
and he went down to Portobello, where absolute 
rest was prescribed for several months. But it was 
easier for him to rest by doing something. It was 
a relief to him to be able to write an occasional 
article for the Leeds Mercury or The Scotsman ; and 
this he did. As helping to understand the amount 
of labour which he performed this year, it ought to 
be recorded that Mackenzie had undertaken the proof 
reading for a reprint of the Sechuana Bible ; and 
that he had expended much energy and anxious 
thought over an elaborate correspondence with the 
Government regarding the rights of the London 
Missionary Society to the ownership of the fountain 
at Kuruman in Bechuanaland. This ownership was 
being contested largely out of hatred of the Society 
and of some of its promoters ; and the victory was 
won by the Society, which had done so much for 
South Africa, not without very great exertions and 
some bitter experiences. 

It may also be recorded that several of Mackenzie's 
South African correspondents called his attention at 



438 JOHN MACKENZIE 

this time (1889) to the extraordinary manner in 
which President Kruger had begun to supply the 
burghers of the Transvaal with guns and ammunition. 
Men who knew the facts told him of the resolution 
of the Transvaal Government to see that this dis- 
tribution of the best weapons was quietly but effec- 
tively carried out, and the way in which it was done. 
During this year, then, the British Government 
made its momentous choice, from which many of its 
subsequent relations to the South African States and 
Colonies may be traced as with relentless logic down 
to the year 1899. It decided many things when it 
resolved to grant a charter to the British South 
Africa Company, and refused to separate the office 
of High Commissioner for South Africa from that 
of Governor of the Cape Colony. To secure this 
separation and prevent that grant, Mackenzie had in 
vain employed all the resources of argument and 
agitation, almost to the breaking of his heart. His 
prophecy was rejected ; and Great Britain gave South 
African history over to be directed for well-nigh ten 
years, by those personalities who received from her 
hands that charter and those undivided offices. What 
they made of it we now know. But that prophet 
described its gloom to an unbelieving people in 1889. 



CHAPTER XVII 

ENGLAND — THE SAVING OF BECHUANALAND 
(189O-1891) 

When Mackenzie returned to active work in February 
1890, his plan of campaign, along with the ever faith- 
ful members of the South African Committee, was to 
make sure now of the union of North and SoCith 
Bechuanaland under Imperial administration as a 
Crown Colony. Much work was also given to 
prevent the cession of Swaziland to the Transvaal, 
on conditions which President Kruger was most 
sedulously urging. It is unnecessary to enter into 
detail upon the latter question and to describe the 
kind of pressure which was brought to bear upon 
the Government to meet President Kruger's wishes. 
On February 19th, Mackenzie lectured before the 
Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, and addressed the 
Constitutional Club in London in the month of May. 
In that month also he was invited to take part in 
a deputation to the King of Belgium, who was on a 
visit to London. The following extract from a letter 
of the Rev. J. Grant Mills, Secretary of the Association 
which sent this deputation to the Belgium King, is of 
biographical interest. Mr Grant Mills had been 
negotiating with Count d'Outremont : — 

I saw the Count, to whom I repeated the contents of your 
letter. He then went on to the King and returned with a 
message, and said that the King would be pleased to receive 
myself and two others, one of whom was to be yourself, from 
the Congregational Union. The King specially mentioned 
you. Count d'Outremont said that the King was specially 

439 



440 JOHN MACKENZIE 

anxious to meet experts who knew Africa, and that therefore 
His Majesty had expressed a desire that you should come. 

Throughout the summer his work continued with 
great activity, although there is not much that need 
be recorded, since it so much resembles what we have 
already described. 

On July I 5 th he writes to one of his sons : — 

I am not without some encouragement in my work. You 
would see, an order in Council has been published giving 
certain powers in North Bechuanaland to the Governor of 
Bechuanaland, Sir H. B. Loch, under the foreign Juris- 
diction Acts. It was under these Acts that I began opera- 
tions in 1884. They were found to be quite unsuitable and 
inadequate. And yet they will again take up with them 
rather than do things in a business way. But it shows they 
have seen the necessity of some movement. And the next 
thing will be, or ought to be, the establishment of the 
Queen's sovereignty and administration. Then my present 
work will be over May God graciously hasten this. 

After the holidays he had various public engage- 
ments, amongst which was the delivery of a lecture 
before the South Place Ethical Society, one Sunday 
morning, on " Systems of Tribal Policy in South 
Africa." 

About this time Mackenzie performed an act whose 
moral value can hardly be ignored. He had seen 
announced in the public press a route by which the 
pioneer forces of the British South Africa Company 
intended to enter Mashonaland. The route chosen 
by them was apparently the easiest and most direct, 
but it had been marked out by men who, knowing in 
general the geography of those regions, must have 
known little or nothing of their political situation. 
Mackenzie was absolutely convinced that if the 
pioneers travelled on that road they would be 
massacred by the Matabele. The Company would 
be, if not crushed, at least dishonoured at the very 
beginning of its history. As he said afterwards, he 



d 



THE SAVING OF BECHUANALAND 441 

could not "bear to think of all those fine young 
Englishmen being speared some night " by the 
terrible Matabele, whom he knew so well. Mackenzie 
at once saw his duty, and without hesitation did it. 
He sat down and wrote to Lord Knutsford, and also 
to Lord Salisbury, giving in detail the facts which 
convinced him of the extreme danger which would be 
incurred by the British South Africa Company if they 
journeyed on the route announced in the papers ; and 
more than that, he carefully marked out the direction 
in which it would be safe for the pioneers to proceed 
from Bechuanaland into Mashonaland, naming the 
places at which water could be obtained, and the 
reasons why Matabele prejudices would not be 
insulted, nor their fears be excited if this route 
were adopted. With immense satisfaction he saw 
shortly afterwards an announcement in the papers, 
that the leaders of the expedition had seen reason 
to change their plans, and had resolved upon a new 
road into their territory, this being the one which 
Mackenzie had marked out for them. 

The following letter to the Secretary of the 
Company will further illustrate Mackenzie's spirit, 
and the attitude which he assumed towards the 
Company when once it had been established and 
formed part of the life of South Africa. The letter 
makes reference to a further memorandum which he 
had recently sent to Lord Salisbury regarding 
Walvisch Bay and its importance to Great Britain : — 

II Queen Square, 
London, 2)OthJan. 1891. 

The Secretary of the British South Africa Company. 

Dear Sir, — I enclose, for the information of your 
Board of Directors, a copy of a memorandum which I recently 
sent to Her Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. 
I daresay it is within your knowledge that before your 



442 JOHN MACKENZIE 

Company obtained its charter I advocated instead Imperial 
control. 

Since the granting of the charter, however, I have conceived 
it to be my duty to accept the decision of Her Majesty's 
Government thus practically come to, and to render any 
assistance in my power to the peaceful opening up of the 
country by the Company, as, for instance, by suggesting the 
best route for the Company's pioneers to take in order to 
enter Mashonaland without fighting. 

The enclosed memorandum has reference to the next 
important question in the development of Mashonaland and 
neighbouring countries — the question of the best route to 
England. 

Physical geography really answers the question. The Cape 
Colony railway and the other north-going South African rail- 
ways will play an important and indispensable part in the 
development of South Africa, but the route forced on the 
attention of the pioneers in Mashonaland is one which will 
minimise the expense and time of transit. The first answer 
to that is, the route via Pungwe River, but the final and 
permanent answer is a railway across Africa from Walvisch 
Bay to Pungwe River or Zambesi River. Via Walvisch Bay 
your traveller would have some 2000 miles less to travel 
than by any other route. — I remain, ever yours sincerely, 

John Mackenzie. 

Mr Albert Grey wrote to Mackenzie concerning 
this letter, and the memorandum to which it referred, 
as follows : — 

The Duke of Fife has been greatly interested by your 
private letter to me, as well as by your admirable memor- 
andum, which has been copied out and forwarded to every 
member of our Board. ... I much look forward to having 
a talk with you about the various problems for Imperial 
administration in South Africa, which you have so nearly at 
heart, and which possess my fullest sympathy. 

On February 2nd Mackenzie sent another letter 
to Lord Knutsford, calling his attention to the 
memorandum concerning Walvisch Bay, and then 
dealing very carefully with the problem of Bechuana- 
land. This he now felt to be the final piece of 



« 



THE SAVING OF BECHUANALAND 443 

work which he had to accomplish — the securing of 

an Imperial administration for North Bechuana- 

land. The heart of his proposal, and his deep 

earnestness about it, are revealed in the concluding 

paragraphs of his letter : — 

II Queen Square, 
2nd Feb. 1890. 

Everything points to a consolidation of British administra- 
tion in Bechuanaland for some time to come, and not to the 
giving up of our position there. 

The expense of this course will not be increased by includ- 
ing North Bechuanaland under British sovereignty, because I 
would contemplate obtaining from the Chiefs a cession of 
lands unoccupied and unneeded by them, which would be a 
source of revenue, and in the course of time, notwithstanding 
past failure, I should hope to secure from them direct assist- 
ance by some form of tax. Their confidence, which has been 
impaired, would, of course, need to be regained, and this 
would take time. But there is only one other course, sooner 
or later, that of the Hollander Editor of the Zutd Afrikaan 
newspaper, which he would wish to pass off as the view of the 
Colony — to fight them and break them up, and make them 
for ever our enemies in their hearts. 

Forgive a too long letter. I am sure you will not misunder- 
stand it. The responsibility of a very important decision will 
largely rest on your Lordship. I have taken the liberty in 
these lines to tender advice, which I believe would lead to peace- 
ful development and good understanding between natives and 
Europeans of all nationalities. I am thankful that Sir Henry 
Loch comes to this country to consult with Her Majesty's 
Government, after the personal acquaintance which he has 
now made with both South and North Bechuanaland. 

This letter to Lord Knutsford was described in the 
following way to Mr Chamberlain, to whom he also 
announced the fact that he felt his own task of agita- 
tion approaching its close. 

1 1 Queen Square, 
London, loth Feb. 1891. 

Dear Mr Chamberlain, — I take the liberty to enclose a 
copy of a letter which I sent to Lord Knutsford a short time 
ago. I was impressed with the very great responsibility which 



444 JOHN MACKENZIE 

rested on him at this time, and wrote to him under that feel- 
ing. I shall be glad if you will return it after you have had 
time to look it over. 

Lord Knutsford, in reply, said what I had written would 
secure attention from him and from Sir Henry Loch in 
their consultations, and afterwards from Her Majesty's 
Government. 

I would not gather from Sir Henry Loch that he was 
opposed to our views, although, of course, he is duly 
reserved. I trust you will do what you can in this matter. 
If you do this, I am sure your judgment and wish would 
go a great way. There is also another result of your exert- 
ing yourself in behalf of a righteous course as to Bechuana- 
land, and it is this, that if British administration is established 
in Khame's country, as in South Bechuanaland, I shall regard 
the work as accomplished which I came over here to help in ; 
and thus you see, there would be some prospect of my ceas- 
ing to trouble you about Bechuanaland. 

The Missionary Society for some time past has been 
urging me to go back to its service again — not in Bechuana- 
land. I replied then that I would go nowhere till I saw 
this through, and now I trust it may please God to help the 
poor duffers of natives in North Bechuanaland, by getting 
them again to place full confidence in us, to go back to a 
clearly defined arrangement with Her Majesty's Government, 
such as that of 1885, and thus secure them their holdings by 
an Imperial title, which would bring real peace to the country. 

I have no reason to suppose that you do wish to be freed 
from studying the Bechuanaland question ; on the contrary, I 
think you have a real interest in South African questions, and 
personally I have much reason to be thankful for your sym- 
pathy, advice, and assistance. 

I have never before referred to my own affairs, or mixed 
them up with what I have regarded as my duty to others. I 
only know that if British administration is extended to North 
Bechuanaland I shall have brought about what I came over 
to help in, and be free to look out earnestly and thought- 
fully as to what bit of work I can next do before I become an 
old man. 

Mr Chamberlain replied in a reassuring manner in 
a personal interview, which Mackenzie described to his 
wife as follows : — 



THE SAVING OF BECHUANALAND 445 



1 1 Queen Square, W.C, 
9/^ March 1891. 

I looked up Mr Chamberlain this morning, and had a short 
interview. He assures me on the following points : — 

1. He is to be consulted by Lord Knutsford before, and 
not after, they form their policy. 

2. No annexation to the Cape Colony. There might be 
a rectification of the Northern Border of the Cape Colony. I 
said this was nonsense ; that meant the annexation of the 
Bechuanaland Colony to the Cape Colony. No ; he did not 
understand that at all — only a small addition to put right the 
boundary line. I said that was a mistake, the boundary line 
was put down by Moysey, an Imperial officer, and afterwards 
ratified by the Cape Colony. 

3. He also assured me that no annexation would take place 
without consulting the wishes of the natives. My visit was 
unannounced, but I hope good will come of it. 

I ventured to remind him that the special position of 
honour which he had occupied in recent festivities and 
hospitalities, owing to his position generally, but specially 
owing to the interest which he had taken in South African 
affairs, showed the appreciation of his position which others 
held. It was for him, therefore, to see that in other ways 
that position and those views were recognized and deferred 
to, that he did not make things too cheap. 

" When all this Company-mongering is over, the history of 
the country will show that ours is the true policy to pursue," 
I assured him. " I want you to be more militant than you 
have lately been," I added. " I am afraid that steps may be 
taken which will make all such interference and advice too 
late." 

" I don't know, however, that I want to be more militant 
at present," he said. " In any case I must think the matter 
over." 

We had some more talk to the same effect. I wish I 
could make him more earnest about this matter. He is a 
clever man, and one who would not give up a point if once 
he gave adhesion to it. 

"Oh, Mr Rhodes is more taken up with an Imperial 
ZoUverein than anything else at present." 

I replied, " I don't think so at all, but he would be de- 
lighted if he could set you all a-thinking about a ZoUverein and 



446 JOHN MACKENZIE 

Imperial Federation, etc., while he practically advances the 
Cape Colony northward in South Africa. His object, in 
short, is to remove the consideration of South African sub- 
jects from London to Cape Town. Do you agree to that ? 
Remember it is Africa — a Continent. Surely Britain will 
not let itself be excluded from presiding over its affairs till 
it can hand these affairs over to a local Confederation." 

" I quite agree that what must be worked for, and what we 
may expect, is a Confederation." 

" If everybody is pleased and willing to transmit the 
management of the whole thing to the Cape Colony, 
Cape Town and not London would be the place where a 
man like myself would have to seek to establish influence 
and sound opinion." 

I left him with the idea that I had made some impression. 
I should not perhaps have gone, nor should I have spoken 
so strongly, but for a note from Sir Fowell Buxton, in which 
he seems to be inclined to give everything up to " local 
management." 

We had a long chat — a serious one — in the smoking- 
room of No. 1 1 last night ; an American Colonel, an old 
East Indian, a Liverpool young man, and myself. 

"Young Mr Lincoln," the American Minister, called for 
the American family yesterday. He is not so lankey as the 
pictures of his father. J. M. 

Mr Chamberlain appears to have immediately 
w^ritten to Mackenzie another letter, to which the 
latter replied as follows : — 

London, March ii, 1891. 
Dear Mr Chamberlain, — Many thanks for your note, 
which is reassuring. I cannot but await with great anxiety 
the outcome of a policy which is touched on, with reference 
to a country in which I have spent a great part of my life. . . . 
I cannot forget that the entrance into Bechuanaland by the 
British Government has been the cause of our revived influence 
throughout South Africa, just as the holding by the administra- 
tion of that country now by the British Government will prove 
itself the key to the complete and lasting establishment of our 
influence in South Africa generally. This is the crucial step, 
leading to a future confederation of the various European 
governments, instead of the haphazard muddle to which the 



i 



THE SAVING OF BECHUANALAND 447 

growth of the Cape Colony must lead. I beg your continued 
interest in a matter which the future will amply show is one 
of supreme importance. 

It soon became apparent that the Government was 
being gradually driven, by the logic of facts and the 
urgent appeals of Mackenzie and the various members 
of the South African Committee, to take some 
momentous step with regard to North Bechuanaland, 
for, of all portions of Austral Africa south of the 
Zambesi, that alone remained without some definite 
form of civilised government. But as Mackenzie saw 
the close of his long work approaching, there neces- 
sarily arose in his mind the question of his own 
future. This indeed had already been raised for him 
by the Directors of the London Missionary Society, 
who for a number of months had been negotiating 
with him. Their final proposal was that he should 
go out in their service to the mission station of 
Hankey in Cape Colony, about fifty miles west of 
Port Elizabeth. As all their other important stations 
were at this time occupied, and they had very 
urgent reasons for wishing to set a strong man to 
work at Hankey, this remained as the only definite 
prospect that they could hold out to him. The 
following extracts are from a letter to his wife when 
these negotiations began, and serve to show the spirit 
in which he faced the task proposed to him. 

Manchester, \']th Oct. 1890. 

I sent you a copy of the Weekly Tiines with that reference 
from their Mashonaland correspondent. 

I have now received, before leaving London, the formal 
request of the Directors that I go to Hankey, which I 
enclose. 

It is to start on a new kind of life ; new languages, and in 
a part of the country with which I have had no connection. 

The man who goes there can be of no use — or very little 
use — in general South African affairs. Were I to go there 



448 JOHN MACKENZIE 

I should simply give myself to the work there, and to 
nothing else. It would amount to that. 

I don't know how it might turn out, but Thompson's im- 
pression decidedly was, that the place would have, in the 
end, to be disposed of, and the people be left to Colonial 
life in its general bearings, as has been done on other 
institutions already. I don't know if he was right in this 
surmise, but understood from him that this might turn out 
part of my duties. 

So far as my thoughts and sense of personal duty go, 
they don't lead me to Hankey at all. They have to do with 
my work elsewhere in South Africa. 

I have often said to you that if I had ever so much 
money I could not have been better placed than I have 
been over here, to do my work, and that I was where I 
felt I ought to be in the meantime. I have no such feeling 
about going to Hankey. I should go there because I was 
unable to refuse to go at the Society's request, on account 
of money-obligation to them. 

I take it for granted, however, that they will not ask me 
to go away right off, while the destination of Bechuanaland 
is undecided, and may be said to be now under considera- 
tion, owing to the personal visit of Sir H. Loch to that 
country. If that is settled, in whatever way, I shall prepare 
myself to obey the Directors, and go and do my best at 
Hankey. I have already stated to Mr Thompson's clerk — 
he was out — that I took it for granted they meant me to 
remain and see this out after Loch's report. 

Also, I asked that I should be completely free from 
Deputation work, so that I might give my time to the 
finishing of the Sechuana Scriptures. 

This is how the matter stands. I cannot say that I 
change the whole bent of my life and thought and work, 
so far done — and more of it being done — to devote myself 
to the settlement of the affairs of Hankey. 

I believe that He whom we serve will guide us at this 
time. He will open up our way. What I feel is that I 
must be perfectly open-minded and above board all round, 
so that there can be no misunderstanding. 

If Bechuanaland is settled and disposed of, my sense of 
obligation to the Society would send me to Hankey, and I 
am not at all insensible to what might be done there. Not 
at all. Let us wait on God, and look to Him. 



THE SAVING OF BECHUANALAND 449 

Since the date of this letter, he had learned much 
more concerning Hankey, and it had begun to occupy 
a distinct place in his imagination of the future. 
Nevertheless, it can hardly be said that his heart as 
yet went out to Hankey with anything of eager 
anticipation. He was still deeply immersed in the 
larger problems of Imperialism in South Africa. He 
everywhere makes it plain in his correspondence that 
his own desires went out towards some form of 
administrative work. In the course of his many 
and earnest discussions with Mr Chamberlain, as well 
as with Sir Robert Herbert, this subject naturally 
arose. At last, in the course of an important con- 
versation regarding Bechuanaland and its approaching 
political settlement, Mackenzie was led to say to Sir 
Robert Herbert that he was willing to put himself at 
the service of the Government, if they had any work 
for him to do. This step Mr Chamberlain very 
warmly approved. Sir Robert Herbert and Lord 
Knutsford both received it with apparent cordiality 
and good-will. 

These conversations resulted in his sending to Lord 
Knutsford the following letter : — 

1 1 Queen Square, W.C, London, 
2\st April 1891. 

Dear Lord Knutsford, — I learn with great pleasure 
that Her Majesty's Government contemplate an extension 
of Imperial administration in the Protectorate, and in 
Khame's country. I think your Lordship is aware that I 
was so impressed with the necessity for taking this step that 
I came over to England to do all that a private individual 
could, to remove misapprehensions and to give correct in- 
formation concerning a country which had been offered to 
us on very favourable terms by its native owners. 

In view of the step on which Her Majesty's Government 
has resolved, I am prepared very gladly to resign the work 
of writing, lecturing, and teaching geography, etc., etc., in 
which I have been engaged. I feel sure that my humble 

2 F 



450 JOHN MACKENZIE 

efforts have not been altogether without result, and that, 
with the efforts of other and more influential people, public 
opinion in this country will earnestly support Her Majesty's 
Government in this movement northward. 

The question then arises to me, what to do next ? and 
the answer of my judgment, as well as of my inclination 
would be to assist (if I might) in carrying out the work of 
native administration in South Africa, which will now occupy 
the attention of Her Majesty's Government for some time 
to come. While fully alive to the difficulties of this work, 
I should hope to be able to render some assistance in 
overcoming them, and I cherish the hope and expectation 
that, with our growing knowledge of the country and the 
people, and the natives' increasing knowledge of us and 
your objects, the dif^culties of the present would gradually 
lessen, and in the end disappear. 

When I have mentioned this state of mind to friends, 
it has given them great satisfaction as to the proposed 
action of Government, and also because, as they are pleased 
to say, they feel sure that I can be of service out there ; 
and it was Mr Chamberlain that suggested that I should 
address your Lordship on the subject. 

The first important work that arises out of our movement 
northward, would be to come to a good understanding with 
the Chiefs of North Bechuanaland with reference to this 
movement. To be of any real use in North Bechuanaland 
the Imperial Government must be able to control the 
settlement of vacant lands. Could this power be again 
obtained from the Chiefs, as in 1885? Circumstances 
have no doubt taken place since which render this very 
difficult. But success is not hopeless, and I am willing 
to attempt this at the request of Her Majesty's Government. 
It has been suggested to me that I should mention in 
what capacity I would propose to attempt this work. 

I. Harking back to former experience, one way would 
be that I should go to North Bechuanaland as I did to 
South Bechuanaland, as Deputy Commissioner, under the 
High Commissioner. I think it well to add that, in my 
judgment, it would be necessary that this Deputy Com- 
missionership should be unconnected officially with the 
Government of South Bechuanaland. Owing to the past 
history of the Protectorate, this would be the only practicable, 
not to say the only pleasant, method for all parties. Of 



THE SAVING OF BECHUANALAND 451 

course I should be anxious to enter the country on the 
most friendly terms with Sir Sidney Shippard ; but I feel 
sure it would be to the advantage of the service that our 
work should not be mixed up together. 

2. Or, if Her Majesty's Government came to see its way, 
at some future time, to extend the present colony of 
Bechuanaland northward, I should be prepared to attempt, 
as just stated, the initial work in North Bechuanaland, 
and to take charge of the Native Department, or whatever 
other office in the enlarged Colony Her Majesty's Govern- 
ment might entrust to me. 

3. There is a third capacity in which I am willing to 
undertake the same immediate work in North Bechuanaland, 
but in this case it would be to hand it over to others when 
completed, and to engage in other necessary intermediary 
or diplomatic work elsewhere, as the High Commissioner 
and Her Majesty's Government might desire. It will be 
in the recollection of some that it was contemplated, some 
years ago, to place on the staff of the High Commissioner 
a " Native Commissioner " or " Chief Native Commissioner," 
or " Imperial Native Commissioner," who would be ex- 
pected to be an authority on native customs and native 
politics, and who would also be qualified to undertake on 
behalf of the High Commissioner and Her Majesty's Govern- 
ment the diplomatic work necessarily connected with our 
position and work in native territories. It will not be 
disputed that the presence of such an officer would have 
averted many an untoward and calamitous event. Such 
work as has now to be done in North Bechuanaland would 
fall to this officer. 

Then, Her Majesty's Government has now before its 
mind, in Native Territories, certain general objects which a 
permanent official of this character could do something to 
further, in a quiet, steady, and persistent way. I need only 
mention one or two of those general objects which ought 
never to be lost sight of. Certain steps as to the treatment 
of land, the result of which would be to win the affections 
of the people for Her Majesty's administration, and to 
gradually supersede the communistic relations of the 
members of a tribe among one another, letting in the fresh, 
stimulating breath of healthy individualistic competition ; and 
slowly, but surely, and in the general tribal interest, to 
supersede the power and influence of the Chiefs by an 



452 JOHN MACKENZIE 

evidently helpful Queen's Government, and generally, to 
lead the various communities forward, cherishing a good 
understanding between the old Native element and the 
new European settlers in their country, until, in each case, 
by God's blessing on our efforts, Imperial administration 
could be removed and local self-government advantageously 
take its place. I am willing, if called on by Government, 
to do my best to discharge the duties of " Chief Native 
Commissioner," or " Imperial Native Commissioner." I 
should regard the appointment as a high honour, and I 
should feel all the stimulus and strength which flow from 
the assurance that in this office I had opportunity of serving 
my fellow-men, my beloved country, and the common 
Father of all. — I remain, dear Lord Knutsford, ever sincerely 
yours, John Mackenzie. 

For nearly three months Mackenzie was kept 
waiting for a reply to this application. The reason 
for this was that it had to be transmitted to South 
Africa for the consideration of Sir Henry Loch, 
the High Commissioner and Governor of Cape 
Colony. g| 

Lord Knutsford has kindly supplied the present 
writer with the following statement of facts. Re- 
ferring to the letter of application he says : — 

Upon receiving this I wrote to Sir Henry Loch, in 
which, while enclosing a copy of your father's letter, I 
said that there was no doubt of Mr Mackenzie being a 
very able man, and Imperialistic in his views, as he had 
long been pressing annexation and believed that he could 
reconcile the Chiefs to this proceeding ; that I thought he 
would be really useful, and that he was the man most 
likely to conciliate the Chiefs ; that I personally would be 
glad to see him appointed Special Commissioner (perhaps 
for one year in the first instance), under Sir Henry Loch's 
orders as High Commissioner. 

During the delay Mackenzie had been much 
encouraged by various interviews at the Colonial 
Office, which seemed to indicate that there, at any 
rate, his appointment would be received with satis- 



THE SAVING OF BECHUANALAND 453 

faction. He even went the length of describing in 
a communication to Sir Robert Herbert, on the 
loth of May, the plan which should be adopted by 
a Commissioner appointed to bring North Bechuana- 
land under Imperial administration. When at last 
Lord Knutsford announced on July 7th that Sir 
Henry Loch had decided against the proposal, there 
could be no doubt of Mackenzie's deep disappoint- 
ment. Sir Henry Loch said that he had already made 
other arrangements for the control and administration 
of the Protectorate, which did not admit of the 
appointment of any officer to perform the kind 
of work proposed for Mackenzie. To this Mackenzie 
replied as follows : — 

II Queen Square, W.C, 
loth July 1 89 1. 

Dear Lord Knutsford, — I have to acknowledge your 
Lordship's kindly expressed note informing me that Sir 
Henry Loch has made arrangements for the control and 
administration of the Bechuanaland Protectorate, and does 
not see his way to avail himself of my services there, and 
that your Lordship could not press the matter further against 
his decided opinion. 

In reply to this unexpected information, and in so far as 
the question is a personal one, I shall only say that I bow to 
your Lordship's decision, for which I have been anxiously 
waiting for some time : and that I shall never regret having 
offered my services for a pacific settlement of North Bechu- 
analand at the present juncture, although those services have 
been declined. I may be permitted to say also that I have 
worked for this cause for so many years that I am not afraid 
that my policy or my motives are misunderstood in Cape 
Town any more than at the Colonial Office in London : 
and again, I am quite sure that they have not declined my 
services on account of my ignorance of Bechuanaland, or my 
want of acceptability to its people, black as well as white. 

Leaving the present aspect of the question, I beg to offer 
a few remarks on the much graver public iaspect. This I can 
do all the more readily that I have had no private or personal 
quarrels or animosities in South Africa. The umbrage which 



454 



JOHN MACKENZIE 



I may have given has been entirely through the public policy 
which I have advocated, and especially because it is recognized 
that I had something to do with the revival of Imperial 
influence in South Africa at a time when it was thought to 
have been banished and got rid of. I confess I am afraid 
that that influence, as a power for good^ is still in great danger 
of being, in a clever but real way, subverted and banished 
from South Africa — leaving the Imperial Government with 
full responsibility^ but stripped of all power and means of 
action. 

Allow me to recapitulate the heads of the policy to 
advocate which I have given some years of my life, and 
which has met with public approval in this country, the 
intelligent acquiescence of the natives, chiefs, and people, after 
being fully explained to them, as well as the approbation of 
the best and most intelligent colonists. 

1. I believe I was the first to point out the possibility of 
the peaceful opening up of native territories under the 
Imperial Government, accompanied by the recognition of the 
rights of natives to their holdings, and by intelligent steps 
taken to secure those lands to their owners under the Imperial 
Government. 

2. There being no General or Central Government in 
South Africa, and Her Majesty's Government being recognized 
as practically in this capacity by every State and Colony, it 
follows that new territories such as Bechuanaland should be 
administered under Imperial auspices till local self-government 
became advisable. 

3. The third point consists in a recognition of the growth 
of public opinion here and in South Africa as to South 
African affairs, which may be shown in this way. Although 
in 1883 and '84 the growth of the Cape Colony northward 
was held to be infinitely better than that Bechuanaland 
should be the scene of outrage and filibustering or should 
pass over to the Transvaal or Germany, and Britain be 
effectually shut out of the country ; yet, more recently, after 
the attention of Great Britain and of all South Africa has 
been directed to these northern countries, it is fully recognized 
that it is the duty of the Imperial Government, as the Acting 
General Government of South Africa — and in the interests 
of the whole country — to consider thoughtfully the dis- 
position of native territories under Imperial protection, so 
that a Confederation of the European Governments in South 



THE SAVING OF BECHUANALAND 455 

Africa under Great Britain may become practicable in the 
future ; and that therefore both Bechuanaland and Zambesi 
should be administered as separate colonies or territories 
until such time as the wishes of their respective inhabitants, 
and the general interest of South Africa as a whole, made 
plain what further step should be taken with regard to their 
future and permanent government. 

Now there are doubtless some men in South Africa who 
would object to all these propositions. They would 
"hammer" the natives, and rob them of their land, and 
never recognize their right to own land, or to possess any 
civil right except to pay a hut-tax. They would "level down " 
the Cape Colony constitution to the condition of those 
republics where a man, no matter how good he is, or how 
much he knows, or how much he has, in character, knowledge, 
or property, can have no citizen-rights, because he is a native 
African in his own country of Africa. These people most 
earnestly desire to see the Imperial Government snubbed 
and bounced till it retires from all administrative work in 
new territories : and they do so simply and baldly because 
the British Government insists that the natives do have rights 
which a civilized government must recognise. These people 
do not hide from us that when they succeed in expelling the 
Imperial Government from responsible administrative work, 
they intend to introduce, not " slavery," they assure you, but 
a " domestic institution," some " labour arrangement," in the 
practice of which Europeans are to march northwards in 
Africa under the British flag. The one policy is to hold 
Bechuanaland under the Imperial Government in the assured 
hope that education, and the introduction of civilized settlers 
from Britain and from the Cape Colony, will make that 
country an important factor in " levelling up " the future 
South African Confederation to the status of the present 
constitution of the Cape Colony. The other is to drive out 
the Imperial Government and " level down " the Cape Colony 
Constitution to the present low status of the Grondwet of 
the Transvaal. 

I know of nothing which illustrates the present South 
African position so well as the condition of the United States 
of America before the Civil War. The great question then 
was. Shall the new territories become Free Soil or Slave 
States? The corresponding "Southern" view in South 
Africa at the present time, would expel the Imperial 



456 JOHN MACKENZIE 

Government from administration and thus settle the matter 
in favour of its own views. The best men in South Africa, 
and I am not now speaking of Dutch or English, earnestly 
desire the Imperial Government to remain in active 
administration and responsibility in native territories, so that 
the " Northern " view and policy may triumph in the future 
in all South Africa. 

I cannot imagine for a moment any hesitation on a 
question of this nature and magnitude, on the part of your 
Lordship or Her Majesty's Government, when the real 
bearings of the question are clearly seen. The one policy is 
unrighteous, selfish, and destined to be worked out in blood ; 
the other is such as can be laid before South Africa and 
before the world, and on which the blessing of Heaven can 
be asked. 

The problem in South Africa is not an easy one in any 
circumstances. What I fear is that Her Majesty's Govern- 
ment is in danger of acquiescing in its own expulsion from 
active administration in new territories, by a few men in the 
Cape Colony, before there is a Confederated South African 
Government to which it could hand over its duties ; and I 
am well aware that no greater calamity could possibly happen 
to South Africa. 

In concluding these remarks on the public bearings of the 
opposing lines of policy in South Africa to-day, I leave it to 
Her Majesty's Government to choose which it will follow 
and uphold. And in this connexion I beg to put it to your 
Lordship and to Her Majesty's Government to consider 
well whether the present rejection of a man does not mean, 
in the present circumstances, the rejection of an indispensable 
Imperial policy. The individual man cannot help being 
effaced when he is rejected ; but it is quite different with the 
Imperial Government, whose presence and work are so 
necessary. I would therefore implore your Lordship, by all 
that is highest and noblest in our British history and action 
in the world, to see to it that the Imperial Government is 
not effaced in Bechuanaland, and that what I would have 
willingly attempted in North Bechuanaland is really done by 
some one else. — I remain, dear Lord Knutsford, ever yours 
sincerely, John Mackenzie. 

To Mr Chamberlain he wrote on the same 
subject. 



THE SAVING OF BECHUANALAND 457 

n Queen Square, W.C, 
Zthjuly 1 89 1. 

I have received the enclosed letter from Lord Knutsford. 
I also take the liberty to enclose a draft reply, hoping you 
will do me the favour of looking through it. 

I was fully aware that I was proposing to myself no 
bed of roses in the work which I contemplated. Had the 
Government desired that work to be done, and supported 
me along with the High Commissioner, I was prepared to 
go and do my best, knowing that at such a distance from 
Cape Town I should have had very little prospect of 
treading on the toes of any of the Cape Town opponents 
of Imperial administration in native territories. 

But it is better to be told now that there is no room 
or work for me in North Bechuailaland than to be appointed 
and then deserted, as was my experience under Sir H. 
Robinson. 

I do not regret having given some years of my life to 
the work of spreading information about that country and 
about our duties there. You remember well what it was 
in 1884, when I was first introduced to you by Dr Dale. 
Since that time I can conscientiously say I have done what 
I could for the cause of the weak and the ignorant and 
for the good of my country. 

Allow me to thank you for your kindness and help. The 
country up to the Zambesi is now in our hands to make 
or mar. 

As soon as Lord Knutsford's letter reached him, 
Mackenzie walked down to the Mission House and 
into the office of Mr Wardlaw Thompson and said, 
" Now, I am ready for Hankey." 

Before closing this chapter in his life, it ought to be 
recalled that among all the labours which we have 
been describing, Mackenzie had undertaken in the year 
1889 to read the proofs of a re-print of the Bible in 
the language of the Bechuana people. This was 
undertaken at the request of the British and Foreign 
Bible Society. The work would have been irksome 
for any one, but the labour was increased by the fact 
that, as he went on, he could not help doing a little 



458 



JOHN MACKENZIE 



more than merely compare the former edition with 
the proof sheets of the new, to secure an exact corre- 
spondence of the two. The task was not complete 
until the end of 1890. The following letter to the 
late Dr William Wright, the Secretary of the Bible 
Society, will give some idea of what he had done. 

II Queen Square, W.C, 
2,rd December 1890. 

Dear Dr Wright, — I am glad and thankful to say that 
yesterday I sent off the last pages of the Sechuana Scriptures : 
and as the second proofs are only a sheet or two behind, 
I am quite within sight of the completion of my work. 

I should have got through sooner, but that, as you are 
aware, I had to read 288 pages twice over, owing to the 
resolution of the Committee to increase the number of 
copies to be printed. Then I was also laid aside for a 
time by illness which unfitted me for mental work. 

The work itself has been more onerous than might have 
been expected. I found that in different books of Scripture 
there were different ways of spelling the same word. I 
have taken some trouble to bring about uniformity in spelling 
words, and have at any rate reduced the amount of this 
dissimilarity. 

In reading this I have been able to elide a few mistaken 
expressions, one or two of an offensive description, which 
had found their way into use at an early date in the 
history of the Mission. For instance, the word for "poor" 
people in those parts of the Bible which were translated 
at an early date, is " Balala," the name of a single tribe or 
clan of vassal Bechuanas. The right word *' bahumanegi " 
is found in late books ; I have sought to keep out the word 
" Balala " altogether, and to use " Bahumanegi " instead. 
Tlakola = to wipe, specifically as a nurse an infant, had 
got into Scripture, in the sense of to destroy, or to spoil, 
although not used in all such cases. I have kept out this 
word in every case. Sebono is a word 7}iade from the verb 
" bona," to see, by the early missionaries. It was not in 
native use, as indicating "vision," "something seen." It 
was probably not known when this word was made by 
the missionaries and used by them in public services, that 
it fatally resembled a nasty word already in too frequent 



1 



1 



THE SAVING OF BECHUANALAND 459 

use in native swearing. Afterwards another word was coined, 
" sebona," which had no recommendation. " Sepontsisho," 
a thing caused to be seen, was also afterwards used in 
Scripture; and this word I have used throughout for the 
other objectionable words. 

Then, I have put right some ungrammatical expressions, 
and occasionally rearranged an obscure sentence or clause. 

I am glad that I have been able to bring this work to 
completion, and remain, dear Dr Wright, ever yours 
sincerely, John Mackenzie. 

It is due to Mackenzie and to his Christian faith, 
to say in a word that throughout these years of great 
toil, of absorbing engagements, and of deep anxiety, 
his own religious life was not only maintained, but 
deepened. His family letters show abundantly, as 
well as those which he wrote to friends of whose 
Christian sympathy he was sure, that his earlier habits 
of prayer-life remained unimpaired. His separation 
from his wife and family, which was only made bear- 
able by occasional and temporary re-unions in London 
and at Portobello, was turned by him into a means of 
divine grace to them. His nine children were made 
very sure, by his letters, of his unceasing prayer for 
them and watchfulness over their growth. No one 
of them took any step in life which did not call out 
his fullest sympathy, expressed in the tenderest of 
words. He more than once spoke of the absence of 
any anxiety regarding them ; and he explained this 
by his profound faith in the significance of the 
baptismal rite. For him that Christian ordinance 
was no mere form, or empty ceremonial. It was the 
expression and the seal of a covenant between him 
and his Lord, in which his Lord bound Himself, 
Mackenzie believed, to preside over the growth of 
his children and direct them towards the Kingdom of 
Life. 

As soon as it became known that Mackenzie was 
going out again to Africa in the service of the 



460 



JOHN MACKENZIE 



London Missionary Society, letters poured in upon 
him from all quarters, especially from those with 
whom he had been working upon public questions. 
Nearly all of them expressed great regret that Govern- 
ment had not appointed him to its service in South 
Africa. The members of the South African Com- 
mittee immediately attempted to arrange for a public 
dinner in his honour ; but as he was to sail in 
September, when nearly all his friends were out of 
town, this was found impossible. 

Mr H. O. Arnold Forster wrote to him as follows : — 



London, 19/8/91. 

Dear Mackenzie, — I am greatly obliged to you for your 
letter received this day. 

I heard from Loring that all our hopes of your being able 
to do the good work in the way we hoped are at an end. 
I most deeply regret it, I know you will and must feel the 
disappointment. It seemed as if at last the Government 
were going to take one wise step, and now from the old 
quarter comes once more the usual fatal veto. 

We certainly do desire to give you some sort of testimony 
of our regard before you leave, and you will see that the 
enclosed letter from Lord Grey has reference to a communica- 
tion from me upon the subject. So many people are out of 
town that I fear we may meet with some disappointment. 
But, judging from the letters I have received, it will be from 
no want of good-will and esteem that any of your many 
friends will be absent. 

I at anyrate shall, I hope, have the good fortune of see- 
ing you, and I beg you will let me know at the earliest 
opportunity when you expect to be in town. — Yours very 
truly, H. O. Arnold Forster. 

As the dinner could not be arranged at that season, 
the South African Committee resolved to send to 
South Africa as soon as possible, a gift which Mr 
Arnold Forster describes in the following letter : — 

Dear Mackenzie, — Loring and I have been putting our 
heads together since you left. This is what we have thought 
of as possible. 



THE SAVING OF BECHUANALAND 461 

1. A despatch box which you may be able to carry about 
with you, and which will be identified with your work in our 
cause. 

2. A really good travelling clock — "compensated," and 
not too big. 

Perhaps, however, home-counsels may have bettered these 
ideas ; if so, let me know by return, otherwise I shall go 
ahead. Let me know your address in Africa. The things 
shall be sent after you with the least possible delay. We also 
propose to send you some written record on behalf of the 
S. A. Committee, testifying to their deep appreciation 
of your work here. Let me add that Loring and I have 
been agreeing that you have left us an example of courage, 
single-mindedness, and determination to fight for the right, 
which will long serve as an encouragement in the days when 
guidance and inspiration are so sorely needed. You have 
done us both good, and our best return will be to try and 
not let your work fall to the ground. — Yours very truly, 

H. O. Arnold Forster. 

The presents were sent as described by Mr Arnold 
Forster in January 1892, and Mackenzie replied as 
follows : — 

Hankey, Cape Colony, 
2oth Feby. 1892. 

Dear Mr Arnold Forster, — I have received your kind 
letter, announcing the shipment of the valuable gifts and 
keepsakes which my friends of the South African Committee 
have been so kind as to send to me, and more recently the 
case itself reached this place, containing the despatch box 
and the travelling clock. On being unpacked both were 
found in entirely good condition, and are as handsome as 
they are sure to be useful. 

May I ask you to convey my heartfelt thanks to those 
friends who have so kindly expressed their favourable estimate 
of my share in our work accomplished, and our work at- 
tempted and not yet secured, for South Africa, 

I would willingly write at length on the very important 
questions ever near my heart, and which are no doubt 
occupying the Committee's present attention, but I find 
myself surrounded here by imperative duties of a very en- 
grossing nature, which in the meantime demand my whole 
attention. I sincerely hope, however, that the members of 



462 JOHN MACKENZIE 

the Committee will redouble their attention to Imperial 
questions in Southern Africa, for in my opinion present 
circumstances demand not less, but more watchfulness than 
before. In my judgment, Great Britain is at the present 
moment in the utmost danger of losing all practical 
supremacy and control in the management of Border aud 
Native affairs in South Africa, while all the time you are 
given to understand that your influence is increasing. Thus 
the highest interests of both Colonists and natives — so long 
secured by the efforts of the Imperial Power — demand the 
closest vigilance on the part of all lovers of justice and fair 
dealing. Gratified and cheered by my friends' kindness to 
me, I remain, dear Mr Forster, ever yours sincerely, 

John Mackenzie. 



APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XVII 

In the foUow^ing letter, whose occasion is explained by 
itself, Mackenzie gave, as in duty bound, a kind of 
informal report of the work which he had been doing 
since 1883, in which he had enjoyed not only the 
sympathy but the assistance of the London Missionary 
Society : — . 

PORTOBELLO, N.B., 

2)rd Nov. 1890. 
The Rev. R. Wardlaw Thompson, 
Foreign Secretary, L. M. S. 

Dear Mr Thompson, — I have now to reply to the 
invitation of the Directors to undertake the spiritual charge 
of the church at Hankey, as one of the missionaries of the 
Society. 

I have endeavoured very earnestly to ascertain the path of 
duty ; and after prayer and consultation and much anxious 
thought, have arrived at the conclusions which I shall now 
lay before you in as few words as possible. 

But for one thing, the non-settlement of the Bechuanaland 
question, I should at once accept of the Society's invitation, 
and do my best for it at Hankey. It therefore follows that 
if temporary arrangements can be made by you for carrying 



\ 



THE SAVING OF BECHUANALAND 463 

on the work at Hankey till such time as the affairs of 
Bechuanaland are discussed in this country and settled, after 
the report of Sir Henry Loch on his personal visit to Bechu- 
analand, I shall be happy to proceed to Hankey and carry out 
the work of the Society there, in accordance with their present 
invitation. 

In thus subordinating the invitation to engage in work at 
Hankey to the completion of the work for Bechuanaland, I 
feel that I shall evoke your sympathy, although it may entail 
some trouble in making the necessary temporary arrangements. 

You will remember that I came over to this country from 
Africa in the end of 1885 for a specific object, to instruct the 
public with reference to Bechuanaland and the countries 
adjoining, so as to lead to an intelligent and righteous policy. 
My conception of my present work in England has all along 
been to see all Bechuanaland under the administration of the 
Queen, and thus secure the rights of all the natives, as well 
as render impossible the occupation of the freebooter and 
the filibuster. Besides the inertia of ignorance, and the en- 
grossments of the Irish squabble, we had to fight the late 
High Commissioner, and on account of him, in a secondary 
way, the present English Government. 

I do not think it will be out of place for me to recall some 
leading events of recent years, in which I have borne part, 
and in which I have enjoyed the effective co-operation of 
yourself and of many Directors and supporters of the 
Society : — 

1883-4 

The saving of Bechuanaland from the Transvaal, for the 
Society, for the natives, and for Great Britain. 

1884 

Rousing the best feeling of Cape Colonists by press and 
platform as to righteous methods of European expansion ; 
testified to by resolutions at public meetings in chief towns 
of Colony. It was this sound Colonial feeling, evoked at 
this time, which induced Mr Gladstone's Government to send 
out the Bechuanaland Expedition. 

1884-5 

Establishing British Protectorate in South Bechuanaland 
as Deputy Commissioner, and also in connexion with Sir 



464 JOHN MACKENZIE 

Charles Warren ; securing under Sir Charles the peaceful 
co-operation and goodwill of every chief in Bechuanaland, 
North and South. 

1884-5 

Securing a land settlement for South Bechuanaland under 
Imperial auspices, in direct opposition to the policy of Sir 
H. Robinson, who advocated that there should be no land 
settlement till South Bechuanaland was annexed to the Cape 
Colony. What was gained by this is very clearly indicated by 
the fact that when Mr Price lately erected a native church at 
Koning, near Kuruman, a formal protest was sent to him by 
the European who had claimed Koning before the Imperial 
Land Court, and who does not hide his belief that he will 
get redress when the country is annexed to the Cape Colony. 
I observed also that a petition had been actually lodged already 
with the Cape Colony Government, against another decision 
of the Bechuanaland Imperial Land Court, in which that 
decision had been, as in the case of Koning, in favour of the 
natives, and against certain European claimants. 

1885-90 

In England again. By writing " Austral Africa," &c., by 
addressing the Society of Arts ; the British Association ; the 
Geographical Societies of Edinburgh, Manchester, and New- 
castle; the Chambers of Commerce of London, Glasgow, 
Liverpool, and Edinburgh ; by contact with men of influence 
in the political and official world ; by formal communications 
from time to time to the Colonial Office ; by these and other 
means, certain results have been furthered. Among others : — 

The policy of Sir H. Robinson of annexing Bechuanaland 
to the Cape Colony has been defeated once and again. 

The annexation of Swaziland to the Transvaal has been 
defeated, and an Imperial settlement of land and other claims 
secured for that country. 

Public attention in this country directed to the nibbling at 
the Cape Constitution involved in the Revision of Registra- 
tion Act, so that those who promoted that retrogressive m.ove- 
ment have not gone further, as was said to be their original 
intention. 

Keeping the public thoroughly aware of the immense and 
vital importance to all South Africa of retaining the British 
administration of Bechuanaland, thereby lifting gradually South 



THE SAVING OF BECHUANALAND 465 

African policy to the position secured in the Cape Colony by 
its Constitution. Appreciating these and other arguments, 
the public censors of Imperial expenditure have not found 
fault with the Imperial outlay in Bechuanaland ; but, on the 
contrary, public opinion has unanimously demanded a more 
intelligent attitude than that hitherto assumed by the present 
Government. It was this public interest in these regions 
which Mr Rhodes took advantage of on the one hand, while 
on the other hand the present Government professed to 
be furthering the highest interests of the countries indicated, 
in the matter of the Charter of the British South Africa 
Company. 

Restraints were imposed on this Company, and its greater 
subordination to the Colonial Office secured, in deference 
to public opinion and pressure. The Company idea was 
opposed until the Charter was given by the present Govern- 
ment. The position has all along been taken up, that after 
our contract with the chiefs and people of Bechuanaland 
in 1885, and their offers to us of territory at that time, it 
would be unjust, even dishonest, to the British public, to 
hand over any part of Bechuanaland to a Commercial and 
Private Company. This position as to Bechuanaland and 
the Imperial Government has never been controverted. It 
has been privately assented to by authorities of the Com- 
pany, and it has been tacitly recognized in semi-official articles 
on the British South Africa Company. 

War and bloodshed in Matabeleland have been, for the time 
at least, prevented, between the Company and the Matabele. 
You have seen the map with the route which was suggested 
by me to Lord Knutsford, and which has been followed 
without bloodshed. That another route was preferred in 
certain quarters is certain. And it is equally certain that 
if an armed European force had attempted to penetrate 
Matabeleland proper their progress would have been forcibly 
opposed by the Matabele; and, probably in some "kloof" 
or other available place of ambush, hundreds, if not thousands, 
of lives must have been lost in the attempt to force a way to 
Mashonaland through Matabeleland. Public attention has 
been directed to the question of the future Confederation of 
South Africa, especially in connexion with the inadvisable- 
ness of adding to the area of the Cape Colony by the 
annexation of any part of Bechuanaland. 

When Mr Rhodes lately spoke of the growth of the Cape 

2 G 



466 JOHN MACKENZIE 

Colony northwards, not one organ of public opinion in this 
country approved of it, so far as I am aware. Even his 
friends treated it as a joke, or as a mere sop for the present 
gratification of his Africander friends. 

These are some of the results of the peculiar work in which 
I have been lately engaged, a work, which I venture to say, 
is both Christian and Christlike in its grand objects. I have 
not gone into matters of detail ; and, indeed, in your case 
that would be unnecessary, as many of the movements have 
been known to you at the time, and have secured your 
sympathy and help. 

Now I do feel, without, as I trust, unseemly egotism, that 
wide and permanent results have already followed, and are 
destined to follow, the above movements, which have already 
permanently affected the current of South African history. 
In these movements I have borne a part ; to their promotion 
I have given some years of my life ; and my friends generally 
assure me that without my close personal attention and efforts, 
these results would not have been secured. In this connexion 
I desire to express my great obligation to yourself and to other 
Directors and members of the Society, who, along with a few 
personal friends, have enabled me to carry on this work 
hitherto, until, as you will agree with me, the final struggle 
and settlement are within sight. 

I may be allowed to remark that the work which has 
occupied most of my time in England, and in South Africa, 
has always been difficult and sometimes trying. I have shared 
my encouragements with my friends ; and I don't think I 
have troubled them with my disappointments. My position 
has kept myself and more especially those belonging to myself 
in more or less anxiety. But feeling that the work was God's 
work imposed on me, I have stuck to it, turning neither to 
the right hand nor to the left. I have had great pleasure in 
occasionally engaging in Deputation work, as far as I have 
been able. And I have been reading for the press a reprint 
of the Sechuana Scriptures. Otherwise I have been a man 
of one idea, from which nothing has diverted me. It would 
be very easy indeed for me to reckon the books which I have 
read during" these years, and the holidays which I have taken. 

Now, it is evident to me that if we would reap the full 
advantage of what we have been doing in the past, we must 
not slacken our hand till the final settlement is reached and 
British administration is established in all Bechuanaland. 



THE SAVING OF BECHUANALAND 467 

Sir Henry Loch is now in Bechuanaland, and, it appears, 
thinks even of visiting Matabeleland. His report will soon 
be before Her Majesty's Government, and the result will 
probably be a settlement of Bechuanaland up to the Zambesi. 
If he has to be fought, like Sir H. Robinson and Sir F. de 
Winton and others, in the interests of righteousness and fair 
dealing, if he should recommend that South Bechuanaland 
should be handed over to the Cape Colony, and North 
Bechuanaland to the Chartered Company as its possession, 
and that thus the direct Christian influence of Great Britain 
should be excluded from native policy in the interior of South 
Africa, I should like to be in the country when the fight takes 
place. I confess I should not respect myself if I turned away 
from the Bechuanaland question just now, and left it without 
that measure of guidance and furtherance which I have been 
able to bring to bear upon it. No one can exaggerate the 
issue which the settlement of Bechuanaland will practically 
go far to decide. What is really at stake is whether 
"Southerner" or "Northerner" doctrines and tendencies 
are to prevail in Southern Africa : whether the country is 
to be split into two camps on the question of colour, or 
broad justice be done to all, irrespective of race. 

The British public is with us, if our views continue to be 
well explained and kept to the front. I am happy to observe 
in the last Cape papers, that, notwithstanding all efforts which 
have been put forth, those inhabitants of Bechuanaland who 
might be supposed to be most desirous of annexation to the 
Cape Colony, the farming population (which is chiefly the 
Dutch-speaking), have recently, by public address to the 
High Commissioner during his visit to Vryburg, deprecated 
such annexation. This expression of opinion on their part 
will give strength to the often expressed opposition of the 
Bechuanaland natives to Colonial annexation ; and if a full 
expression of opinion to the same efl'ect is given over here, 
the annexation will not take place ; and the whole of Bechu- 
analand will be administered as a Crown Colony under an 
improved Constitution, and the peaceful and righteous 
development of the country secured. 

I have endeavoured to make plain to you and to the 
Directors what stands between me and Hankey at present, 
but which would not stand between me and it after the 
Bechuanaland settlement has been made. I have written in 
entire confidence, as to tried and dear friends, to whom I 



468 



JOHN MACKENZIE 



have been known for over thirty years ; and know my letter 
will be received in the spirit in which it is written. I don't 
think you will judge me to have decided wrongly when you 
consider the present imminent position of the Bechuanaland 
Question. 

When that truly important matter for all South Africa is 
settled, if you have, in the meantime, succeeded in making 
temporary arrangements, then for Hankey ! — With very high 
regards, believe me, ever yours sincerely, 

John Mackenzie. 



<* 



CHAPTER XVIII 

AFRICA — MANY-SIDED WORK AT HANKEY (189I-1898) 

Han KEY is the name given in honour of a former 
Governor of Cape Colony to a settlement about fifty 
miles west of Port Elizabeth. It is situated in a very 
beautiful valley, formed by the Gamtoos River, which 
falls into the sea, about twenty miles south. This was 
one of a number of estates which were acquired by the 
London Missionary Society early in the century under 
the sanction of Government. Originally the Hankey 
estate consisted of more than 4000 acres, which were 
purchased in the year 1822 for ;£^2 5oo. The theory 
of such a settlement in South Africa was this — that if 
the Society owned large enough tracts of ground in 
suitable districts and gathered upon it those natives 
who were willing to break away from tribal govern- 
ment and to place themselves under Christian instruc- 
tion, strong centres of civilisation and religion would be 
established. The missionaries found very early that 
combined superintendence of industrial and social 
development, where they did not possess magisterial 
authority, weakened instead of strengthening their 
moral influence over the people. The theory, there- 
fore, did not work out well in practice, and the Society 
ultimately parted with all its settlements. The process 
of resigning these was by no means easy. It required 
repeated dealings with the Home Government, and 
finally with the Cape Parliament ; and it required 
also prolonged and often most irritating negotiations 
and transactions with the native residents themselves. 

In the year 1876 an Act of the Colonial Parlia- 

469 



470 JOHN MACKENZIE 

ment was passed, enabling the Society to transfer 
its land on certain conditions to the natives, and 
also to European purchasers. As a result of this 
final Parliamentary action, all the remaining stations 
were got rid of by the Society, excepting only 
Hankey. Here the same difficulties which obtained 
elsewhere seemed to concentrate themselves with 
peculiar intensity. Few Europeans were found willing 
to purchase land for the purpose of settling upon it. 
The natives who had been the tenants of the Society, 
accustomed to indulgent treatment in reference to 
rents and other responsibilities, did not relish the 
sterner demand which came upon them when they 
agreed to make periodical payments, with a view 
to ownership. The result was that large numbers, 
after many years, were found to have paid neither 
capital nor interest, and, of course, had escaped the 
payment of rent. It was necessary, therefore, for 
the Society to resume occupancy, and exercise both 
its rights and responsibilities once more. 

The Hankey settlement is peculiarly isolated. Its 
only market is Port Elizabeth, which cannot be 
reached except by traversing a very rough and hard 
road ; this always requires two days, the night being 
spent at an inn about half way. Yet the soil is very 
fruitful, and in good seasons the people make an 
abundant living in the easiest manner. There has, 
therefore, been no stimulus to social or individual 
ambition, and the population fell long ago into ill 
repute throughout that district, and even beyond it, 
for laziness, quarrelsomeness, and incapacity. 

When Mackenzie arrived he found that the affairs 
of the village were supervised by a Board of Manage- 
ment. There was no provision nearer than the town 
of Humansdorp for the religious instruction or care of 
Europeans. The coloured church had been declared 
by the London Missionary Society to be an inde- 



MANY-SIDED WORK AT HANKEY 471 

pendent church, over which he could assume pastoral 
care only after receiving and accepting a " call." The 
Society had for a number of years employed Mr J. 
S. Hultzer as their general and business manager, 
whose duty it was to collect the rents and superintend 
the estates. The Society had also employed for some 
time a Mr Spindler, a civil engineer, for the purpose of 
investigating plans of irrigation and carrying them 
out. In no direction did Mackenzie find that affairs 
were going on with even reasonable smoothness or 
prosperity. There was a tangle in the relation of the 
administrative powers to all the rest. There was a tangle 
in the property relations and rights of the Society ; a 
tangle in the industrial conditions, responsibilities and 
rights, both of the white and coloured farmers, as well as 
the tenants of the Society. There was a tangle in church 
affairs, and a tangle in the educational work of the 
community. His parish, as a spiritual teacher and 
pastor, extended beyond the village of Hankey to 
several out-stations, where he was expected to super- 
intend the work of native preachers, ordained and 
unordained. 

The task of Mackenzie at Hankey was the straighten- 
ing out of all these tangled relations. He was simply 
sent out to put Hankey right from top to bottom. It 
was understood when he was appointed, and when 
others remonstrated against his appointment to a 
sphere so obscure, and toil so thankless, that it might 
be accomplished in three years. No one knows how 
soon Mackenzie saw that the task was no three years' 
task, but the work of a life-time. He gave himself to 
it, not indeed without the exercise of conscious self- 
control, but with profound peace of mind in the 
consciousness of doing his duty. When the doors to 
further employment under Government were closed, 
and the London Missionary Society had this one door 
only to open for him, he accepted this, as his letters 



472 JOHN MACKENZIE 

abundantly show, with perfect simplicity of motive 
and humbleness of heart, as the work which his Master 
now laid upon him. When he found himself at 
Hankey, and the whole sordid facts stared him in 
the face, no mortal heard him grumble. He did not 
look over his shoulder, nor hesitate in any one step. 
He had come to give himself to Hankey and for 
Hankey, as he gave himself long ago to and for 
Shoshong and Kuruman, and as in later years he had 
given himself to and for South Africa as a whole. 
The earthly sweep of his task seemed narrow, but 
the sense of responsibility and the spirit of devotion 
were the same — only deeper and richer. For during 
these last years, when he worked as hard as in the 
days of his prime, and when his strength was gradually 
being undermined, his friends noticed a certain ripen- 
ing of the spiritual man, of which we shall speak later. 
One of the chief difficulties to which Mackenzie had 
looked forward when he accepted his new appointment, 
consisted in the fact that he must learn to preach in the 
Dutch language. It is true that he had for many years 
used the colloquial "Taal" Dutch of South Africa; but 
its ungrammatical lingo he had not mastered, and what 
he knew of it afforded him very little help for a thorough 
learning of pure Dutch. It has been the custom of 
Dutch-speaking South Africans, both European and 
coloured, to conduct all their public religious worship 
and to do all their preaching and speaking in high 
Dutch ; hence Mackenzie, at fifty-six years of age, had 
to face the task of learning a new language. Even 
before he left England he set himself with his own 
grim determination to do this as thoroughly as possible. 
He at once procured the necessary books, grammar, 
dictionary, etc. He also purchased religious works in 
Dutch, and was especially careful to procure a Dutch 
translation of Spurgeon's sermons, in order, as he said, 
that he might become familiar at once with the religious 



MANY-SIDED WORK AT HANKEY 473 

idioms and vocabulary of that language. The first 
result of his characteristic determined diligence was 
this, that having arrived at Han key on Tuesday, 
October 7th, he at once obtained the help of Mr J. S. 
Hultzer to go over the material for his Sunday service, 
to criticise his sermon as to its language and structure, 
and did actually on the first Sunday after his arrival 
conduct the whole service and preach the sermon in 
the Dutch language ! 

Mackenzie with his wife and two daughters speedily 
made themselves at home in Hankey. They were, on 
their arrival, pleased to receive a hearty welcome, with 
a formal address from the Europeans. Amongst these, 
as they afterwards found, there had been many bicker- 
ings and contentions ; but they came in as strangers, 
and refused to hear of or to recognise any such past 
events, resolved from the first to treat them as indeed 
past and done with. 

Mackenzie shut himself into the valley of Hankey 
as completely as if he had never covered all South 
Africa with his interest and service ; as if he had not 
haunted the lobby of the House of Commons for days 
and months and years ; as if great statesmen and 
public men were unknown to him. He shut himself 
into this little valley, refusing for many weeks to read 
newspapers which would divert him from his present 
duty, or to be drawn into any important discussion 
which might still connect him with public life, and 
distract him from Hankey. To the laborious task of 
preparing his weekly sermon in Dutch, and another in 
English — for he instituted a regular English service 
every Sunday besides all other addresses and speeches 
incidental to the pastorate — he added that of imme- 
diately confronting and thoroughly studying the 
administrative, industrial, and social affairs of the 
community. For many months he wrote a long 
letter every fortnight to the Rev. Wardlaw Thompson, 



474 JOHN MACKENZIE 

the foreign secretary of the London Missionary Society. 
These letters bear witness to the minuteness with which 
he studied every fact connected with Hankey. 

Before the end of 1891 he began to make practical 
proposals. In the beginning of 1892 he was able to 
report that he had obtained from the Board of Manage- 
ment a resolution which gave him, in the name of the 
Society, certain powers without which he felt that an 
improvement of the conditions could not be secured. 

On January 13th, 1892, he writes : — 

By this post you will get a copy of the agreement which 
I have succeeded in making with the Hankey Board of 
Managers, which brings to an end the protracted deadlock 
which has prevailed here as between the Society and the 
Board. 

In a letter he says : — 

It is, from my point of view, the best bit of business the 
Society has done here for some time. Such an agreement 
represents a state of mind, and that state of mind would seem 
to be rather a novelty here in Hankey. It will be my part to 
make it permanent, so as to carry us through the equally 
delicate matters connected with the enlargement of the 
irrigable area at Rooi Vlakte. 

The essence of this arrangement consisted in the 
assumption by the Missionary Society — which meant 
by Mackenzie — of the management of the Klein River, 
which formed an important feature in the further 
development of the estates at Hankey. The Board 
agreed to pay to the Society £^0 per annum "to 
assist it in the water management." 

Throughout these early letters Mackenzie enters 
with the utmost minuteness into questions concerning 
the irrigation of various portions of the estates, and 
the engineering work necessary to accomplish that. 
He had to carry through negotiations for the acquire- 
ment of new ground, in order to obtain control of 
certain waters ; and having obtained it, he had to 



MANY-SIDED WORK AT HANKEY 475 

build furrows, deepen and strengthen a dam, besides 
negotiating for the repair of a famous tunnel which 
had been cut through the mountains, to bring the 
water of the Gamtoos within reach of certain portions 
of the valley. 

Naturally it would be impossible to record here the 
details of these investigations, and the labours which 
they involved ; and for many personal reasons it 
would be inappropriate to refer more definitely to the 
many negotiations w^ith individuals in Hankey and 
elsewhere which his letters described. Suffice it to 
say, that this series of letters of itself represents an 
amount of work which most of us would have con- 
sidered sufficient to occupy a man's whole time and 
thought. 

It may not be unsuitable to give the following as 
one or two specimens of the kind of letters of which so 
many passed between Hankey and London for several 

years : 

Hankey, 13M April 1892. 

Dear Mr Thompson, — I failed to send off by last post a 
letter on some of the matters which have recently engaged 
my attention here, and so it goes to-day. Although one of 
great interest, especially to one who knows Hankey and its 
people as you do, I feel sure you will think with me that the 
enclosed agreement with Mr Young is of the utmost im- 
portance, both to Hankey and to the London Missionary 
Society. 

Upon receipt of your letter, I began to approach Mr 
Young as to the use of the fine natural reservoir of Apple 
Drift. After a severe and protracted bargain-making struggle, 
we have come to terms as to Apple Drift, and the right to 
raise it and send back the water ; also as to the portion of 
land on this side of the river as far up as the Falls, near the 
corner of the road where it turns in the direction of Mr J. S. 
Young's house. I felt that without the land on this side of 
the river the arrangement would not be satisfactory. I had 
included the lower gardens of Mr Young, opposite Apple 
Drift, but his ideas were so great that I dropped them, re- 
serving, however, the right to purchase any part which might 



476 JOHN MACKENZIE 



4 



be submerged by the raising of our present Hankey dam, at 
a certain rate per acre, or by exchange of land. I need not 
further define or describe what you know, and what is fully 
shown in the agreement and in the sketch. Mr Spindler, 
some time ago, standing near our dam, said, " Procure Apple 
Drift and raise this dam ten feet, and you can place Hankey 
and Newlands also beyond all want as to supply of water." 
At once, however, as soon as the purchase was made, he 
came to me, taking it for granted, as it were, that we were 
to put up a very great embankment — at least twenty-five feet 
high ! Then we could do so and so. 

Now I am for nothing of this extensive sort. We have 
now a splendid natural dam at Apple Drift. I propose to 
add to it an earth or clay dam, in short, go on with what 
nature has been doing, and then lead out from Apple Drift 
to our present Hankey furrow. This taps a water supply 
hitherto untouched. 

Then I would raise our present dam and put it in thorough 
order and keep it as a reservoir of reserve water for a time of 
drought. 

If it were thought worth while, another dam or reservoir 
could afterwards be made where Mr Spindler intended to 
have his dam, or at other convenient spot on the river course, 
raising every dam so as to connect with Hankey furrow. 

In short, from Apple Drift downwards, there could be and 
doubtless will be a series of dams or reservoirs for the storage 
of water ; while out of Apple Drift itself is carried on the 
usual work of irrigation. We can work ahead and know we 
are going right, and then we must advance slowly. The 
outlay connected with this purchase, beyond the price 
mentioned in the enclosed agreement, will be confined to a 
furrow from Apple Drift to our present Hankey furrow ; and 
the enclosing of the piece of land which Mr Young re- 
quested, and which will be as advantageous to one side as 
the other. 

I need not tell you what this bargain really means. It 
means the irrigation of Newlands, as far as our land goes, I 
believe ; and it means the irrigation of Thorndale as it has 
not been irrigated before, at anyrate, in dry years. 

Mr Hultzer thinks it would pay if you cabled your consent,, 
as natives wish to live in Newlands this season. Mr Spindler, 
it seems, said to Mr Hultzer, '' This lightens my Gamtoos 
scheme wonderfully." 



4 



MANY-SIDED WORK AT HANKEY 477 

The word consent would be enough in your cable, and 
certainly you will never have consented to anything of equal 
importance to the Hankey of the future. — Believe me, ever 
yours sincerely, John Mackenzie. 

Hankey, April 27th, 1892. 

Dear Mr Thompson, — Hankey has just been visited by 
an unusual downpour of rain. The Klein River is " down " 
in great force, and the little Bingo, which you remember just 
beyond the village on your way to Mr Young's, has come 
down in a volume quite unknown to anyone in Hankey. It 
has caused the death of one of the people, a man, and an 
excellent swimmer, who must have attempted to cross it on 
his way home, as being only the Bingo. His body was re- 
covered this morning in the bed of the Klein River below 
the bridge. The bridge, of course, is temporarily a bridge no 
more, but a log of wood floating in the Klein River, moored 
to a tree by a chain. 

The Bingo rose to such a height as to carry clean away 
the wooden aqueduct by which the water furrow for our 
gardens and lands is brought along. This was seen by 
some of the people, who acted well and rescued the com- 
ponent parts of the wooden furrow or aqueduct. They are 
now lying on the bank on this side, not much injured, only 
battered here and there. 

This accident has precipitated what must have taken place 
soon — the taking down of these wooden troughs in order to 
enlarge them so as to let an increased flow of water come 
down, and also to raise them, so as to make of more use the 
dam at the corner of my garden. At the present level of 
the big furrow it soon holds as much as the level of the 
furrow permits. Now we want more water in this distribut- 
ing dam, and in order to get it, it must be fed by a furrow at 
a higher level. We have, Mr Spindler informs me, a fall of 
nearly six feet between our present dam and this distributing 
dam. Two feet would be enough, so we can raise our 
furrow, and thus place at the people's disposal a large supply 
of water, at the bare cost of the enlargement and strengthen- 
ing of the wooden aqueduct now out of order at anyrate, and 
the adding to the inner side of the village furrow a sufl[icient 
embankment to bring down the quantity of water which we 
want. 

Instead of putting in those light wooden poles in the bed 



478 JOHN MACKENZIE 

of the Bingo, and to be again at the mercy of its torrent, I 
propose, by the advice of all the great authorities here, to 
get, if possible, three ship's beams which would be long 
enough to reach from one bank to the other. They are 
usually to be had at Port Elizabeth on reasonable terms, 
being from wrecks. So we are writing by this post to try 
and secure them and the necessary timber to enlarge the 
water-shoot. 

Sunday before last I was to have been up the Gamtoos 
River, but our deacon Solomon Felix, sent a note to recom- 
mend that I postpone my visit till last Sunday, in order to 
give more people notice. I did so, and went up last Satur- 
day, accompanied by Mr Ingram. I was advised to write to 
Mr Gert Kok, a farmer at Quagg, who has the best place for 
holding a service. I did so, and was well received and 
entertained by him. The place is used by him as a store, 
but in a few minutes, by willing hands, it is changed into a 
place of worship, and on this occasion Mr Kok's sister 
speedily covered with cloth the packing-case which served as 
a pulpit. I believe the place holds some 200, and it was 
quite full. A third of the number, perhaps, were Europeans. 
The morning and afternoon services were in Dutch, so that 
all could understand. After the morning service we had a 
meeting of the members of the native church, at which the 
names of two deacons were approved of for their district. 
The Europeans are, of course, chiefly members of the 
Humansdorp Dutch Reformed Church, and I understand 
the Rev. Mr Groenewald, their pastor, occasionally visits 
Quagg and holds services in this large room. I found they 
had no appliances for an evening meeting, which I should 
have been glad to hold in English. So Mr Ingram and I 
resolved to come home, as the clouds were threatening up 
the Gamtoos. It was well we did, or otherwise we should 
still have been on the wrong side of the river. 

Next Sunday, according to a promise of long standing, I 
am going to Kreisfontein, that is, if the Gamtoos River kindly 
falls and permits me to cross. I shall then be in a position 
to enquire into the matters of the loan and the bond held by 
Mr Dahl, concerning which I have received, in a letter from 
Mr Mudie, a copy of the Directors' resolutions, and your 
accompanying remarks. You may trust to me to do my best 
in the matter. — With kindest regards, yours sincerely, 

John Mackenzie. 



MANY-SIDED WORK AT HANKEY 479 

The following letter refers to one of the few occasions 
when Mackenzie gave himself a "day off" for sight- 
seeing and recreation : — 

Hankry, 25//^ May 1892. 
My Dear Mr Oates, — I have only time to say to-day that 

I shall do my best for Mr ; and I think he will get on 

well if he adapts himself to the circumstances which I 
described to you. 

We are jogging on here, making some progress, I trust. 
We had a day's outing yesterday, and went to the top of the 
hill in our neighbourhood, from which we could get a grand 
view of the Gamtoos River, above and below Hankey. From 
a point still higher (which some of us visited a week ago) we 
could see the ocean dashing against the coast to our south — 
not more than some 12 or 14 miles as the crow flies. But 
yesterday we went for the view of the winding Gamtoos, and 
not for the far-off view. 

The road was frightful. Some of our party went in an ox- 
waggon. Mrs Mackenzie and one of the girls went in our 
Cape cart. But no conveyance would be easy on such a 
road. We got home, however, without any accident, and I 
rather pleased with the doings of the two horses which had 
to pull the cart. 

There is said to be a Bushman's cave in our neighbour- 
hood, with drawings — almost unknown. Indeed it may be 
mythical. We must first explore and ascertain facts before 
we organise a party. 

But time has come, and I must close. We all join in kind 
regards. — Ever yours sincerely, John Mackenzie. 

During the year 1892, he had the pleasure of 
receiving as an assistant and pupil, Mr G. Cullen H. 
Reed, a son of the late Rev. Andrew Reed, B.A., 
London, and a grandson of Mackenzie's old and 
most valued friend, the Rev. G. D. Cullen, M.A., of 
Edinburgh. Mr Reed, who had had a training as an 
engineer, proved himself of the greatest value to 
Mackenzie, both as an adviser and a practical assistant 
in the work which had to be carried through ; for 



48o JOHN MACKENZIE 

after Mr Spindler left Hankey, there fell to Mackenzie's 
hands once more, as a necessary task, the superintend- 
ence of practical building and engineering work. 

When Mr Reed left, in the beginning of the next 
year, Mackenzie wrote, saying : — 

We are all sorry to part from Mr Reed. I shall miss him 
most. He was truly my right hand man, and I don't know 
how much he saved me in every way he could. 

Just before Mr Reed left, Mackenzie had written as 
follows : — 

Jany. 29, 1893. — ^'' Reed is likely to leave us soon now. 
I have taken all the services to-day, and I daresay I shall 
find it pretty stiff. 

It can only be considered as a calamity to Mac- 
kenzie's own life, as well as to the efficiency of 
his work, that no successor to Mr Reed was found 
and sent out at this time. 

One of Mackenzie's chief aims in regard to Hankey 
was to secure its connection with Port Elizabeth by a 
railway. He knew that in days to come Cape Town 
must itself be connected with Port Elizabeth by a much 
shorter route than that which at present goes around 
through De Aar. If he could hasten the building of 
even part of this railway he would help to bring that 
consummation nearer, and at the same time take the 
longest step towards the industrial development of 
Hankey and other similar spots on the southern 
coast. To further this aim he stirred up a strong 
local agitation, corresponded personally with the 
Government officers at Cape Town, and even went, 
accompanied by Mr Hultzer, as a deputation, to wait 
upon the Department and urge their plea. 

He assisted in drawing up the petition from the 
railway committee at Hankey to Sir James Sievewright, 
Commissioner of Crown Lands and Public Works. 

The most obvious argument was based, of course, 
upon the prosperity of the people, the increase of the 



MANY-SIDED WORK AT HANKEY 481 

products from that district, and the promise of greater 
development if the railway communication were granted 
to them ; but a still stronger argument based this 
appeal to the Government upon the fact that the 
Department of Public Works proposed to enter upon 
expensive irrigation schemes in other districts of the 
Colony. These schemes could only be made re- 
munerative to the Government of the Colony if they 
were made tributary to its railway system. If, there- 
fore, the Government would be forced to build railways 
for the districts which were yet to be irrigated, at its 
own expense, how much more should this be done for 
a district like Hankey, where local enterprise and 
industry had really created an extensive irrigation 
system and produced a condition of affairs deserving 
not only of praise, but of practical encouragement. 

It was with great delight that Mackenzie heard, 
after long consideration and discussion, that a survey of 
the district was being undertaken, although the actual 
building of the railway must be postponed. He had to 
be content with some minor improvements in the way of 
better district roads, and some valuable bridge building. 

Another discussion which Mackenzie had with the 
Government may be described here, for the light it 
throws upon yet another side of his own varied 
activities in Hankey. The nearest doctor, when the 
Mackenzies arrived there, lived twenty miles away ; 
and many hardships were endured around them in 
consequence of this. 

A movement in 1896, for the appointment by 
Government of a district surgeon at Hankey, led to 
the following letter : — 

Hankey, idth May 1896. 
Dr Turner, etc., etc., 
Board of Health, Cape Town, 

Sir, — I beg to bring under your notice the neglected 
condition of this district as to medical advice and attendance. 
I may mention that a petition from the people of the district 

2 H 



482 JOHN MACKENZIE 

was sent to Government some time ago on the subject, and 
that more recently I directed the present Colonial Secretary's 
attention to it. 

At the last census there were over 1200 people in Hankey 
and neighbourhood. Both sides of the Gamtoos River — above 
us and below us — support a large population. 

There is at present only one district surgeon, who resides at 
the village of Humansdorp. 

Our request is that a second district surgeon should be 
appointed for a subdivision of Humansdorp district, who 
should reside in Hankey, and who should have charge of 
the Eastern part of this wide district. 

I have carried our request beyond this, and represented to 
Government that, instead of being left as we are at present, 
there should not only be a district surgeon here, but that a 
Government assistant dispensary should also be opened at 
this central place for the benefit of the poor among both 
white and coloured people. 

Although we are fifty miles from Port Elizabeth, the 
coloured people of Hankey are very closely connected 
with that town, as servants, etc. It is natural that when 
they become ill there they should come home ; but once 
here they are beyond the reach of such medical attendance 
as they can pay for. I need hardly say that it is a very 
serious thing for people with diseases contracted in a seaport 
remaining without suitable medical attendance. 

Then, with reference to the registration of deaths, the 
alleged cause of death among this very considerable popula- 
tion is at present only the guess of unskilled people. 

To myself this subject has also a personal reference, which 
I must not omit. 

When a missionary in Bechuanaland I was for many years 
accustomed to attend medically, not only my own family, 
but European traders and hunters, as well as the natives 
in whose country I was living. When I came to Hankey in 
1 89 1 nothing was further from my mind than that I should 
be called upon to prescribe for ailing people. But I soon 
found it was otherwise. Both white and coloured people 
begged my assistance, and I had not the heart to refuse. I 
could not but see that when the travelling expenses were 
added to a doctor's bill, it would be beyond the means of 
those people — of many of the white people as well as of the 
coloured people. 



MANY-SIDED WORK AT HANKEY 483 

Dr Beckett, who was in poor health at the time, settled in 
Hankey last year. Of course, when he arrived I ceased en- 
tirely to have anything to do with medicine, taking everybody 
over to the doctor's house. 

We first petitioned for Government assistance while Dr 
Beckett was living here. When no favourable reply came 
to our request Dr Beckett removed from Hankey. Matters 
here have reverted to their former most unsatisfactory con- 
dition. I am attending people and administering medicine 
every day, not only spending a considerable portion of my 
time and not a small amount of my own money on medicine 
but liable to be told, and I suppose to be told correctly, that 
I am breaking the law of the Colony. 

Now I am entirely unwilling to go on with this, and I feel 
sure the Cape Colony Government is in a position to do better 
than this for the people of this district. 

I am told that in other parts of the Colony similar sub- 
divisions of districts have taken place. I am told also that 
special arrangements have been made elsewhere for the 
assistance of really poor people to procure medicine and 
medical attendance. I beg to call your special attention to 
our case, and hope you will be able to assist us. I should 
have addressed you earlier, but was ignorant of the scope of 
your duties. 

The case, as I have said, is in the Colonial Secretary's 
hands. As he is a medical man himself I am counting upon 
the sympathy of Dr Te Water, and feel sure that on full 
enquiry both you and he will be convinced that the small 
extra outlay in granting our request will be more than repaid 
by the improved and satisfactory condition of the district 
from a medical point of view. — I have the honour to remain, 
your obedient servant, John Mackenzie. 

The following extract from a letter written by one 
who had a good opportunity of watching Mackenzie 
at work in this little community for a while, gives a 
vivid account of the manner of his procedure : — 

He can wait, and if you cannot do that here, you are not 
good for much. The things he has had to stand, the bicker- 
ings, trials, small intrigues, and insults, are incredible. They 
would have sent some other man mad in a month. And 
what has come of it all ? He has the rudder in his hand, 



484 JOHN MACKENZIE 

and he practically steers everything. And the funny thing 
is, that all the steering is done through the people themselves, 
through advice, hints, new ideas sown amongst them. In all 
public meetings, board meetings, etc., Mr Mackenzie is present, 
although he does not always take the chair. He conducts the 
meetings all the same. He sits at the top of the hall, amongst 
the people, and sets one idea starting in one direction, and 
another m another, then caps them with his own speech, and 
so carries the affair on. It is a perfect study to an onlooker. 
And what is the result of it all ? Why, the place is changed. 
Hankey is getting known. Farmers who never looked at each 
other before are now on visiting, and in some cases, intimate 
terms. 

Throughout these varied activities Mackenzie's 
interest in his purely religious work never flagged. 
He would sit for hours in the evening with a group 
of native deacons, working over the minutest details I 
connected with the pastoral supervision of his wide 
parish. His preaching, of which we shall speak 
again later, was always very practical and intensely 
earnest. It seems to have reached its highest mark 
on communion Sundays. In preparation for the f 
celebration of the Lord's Supper, and at the Table 
itself, whose significance he ever revered most humbly 
and most deeply, his manner became peculiarly tender 
and his voice thrilled with emotion. And Mackenzie 
had the joy of seeing the fruits of his labours as a 
preacher of the Gospel. Not only was the religious 
life of some of the Europeans visibly and avowedly 
deepened ; he also received considerable additions of 
the coloured people into membership of the church 
from time to time. He was not one, however, who 
at any period of his missionary career felt it right 
to speak of the numbers whom he had led to 
Christ. 

He made frequent visits to the out-stations and 
distant parts of the district under his care. On some 
of these occasions his services were conducted in 



MANY-SIDED WORK AT HANKEY 485 

peculiar places and under trying circumstances. 
The following descriptions of two or three incidents 
by one of his daughters, Mrs E. D. Sheilds, help 
us to realise more vividly the actual work : 

Thornhill 

One Sunday my father and I spent at Thornhill. 

During the week the news had passed from farm to farm 
that on Sunday " Meinheer " would preach. By courtesy 
of the blacksmith these services were held in the smithy, 
a long plank building with iron roof and two doors opposite 
each other. 

We walked up from the inn about a mile distant, enjoying 
as we went the luxuriance of the vegetation and the green- 
ness of the grass after the recent rains. As we came near 
to the smithy, clouds of dust were issuing from the doors, 
for the native deacon was sweeping it out. Accustomed 
to the irregularity caused by differences in time, we spread 
a plaid in the shade of a tree and rested. In time the 
natives assembled and sat on seats formed by planks 
resting at each end on naves of v/heels. When we entered 
we found about thirty natives, labourers from adjoining 
farms. At the back of the smithy stood a Cape cart in 
course of being mended. 

Two chairs were placed near the anvil with their backs 
towards the empty furnace and in full light of the two 
doors. A table was in front of the chair used by my 
father. The other chair, as I had declined it, was occupied 
by the deacon. 

The small congregation was composed of people of all 
ages, women carrying babies, old men, youths, and large 
boys with that almost preternatural solemnity with which 
black boys are gifted. 

The service was simple, and the address in Dutch listened 
to with deep attention. I remember that the preacher was 
trying to impress on their minds a sense of the reality of 
the spiritual life. He said to them " When you look at me, 
what do you see? Do you think you see me? You see 
my body but me you cannot see. My body is my home 
while I am on the earth. When we die, we leave the empty 
shell behind, we do not die." 



486 JOHN MACKENZIE 

Thus in simple words he raised their minds to the 
contemplation of the life beyond this and of the hopes 
of the Christian. 



Kleinfontein Funeral 

At Kleinfontein, about six miles from Hankey, a sad 
accident had happened. A farmer's son had been gored 
to death by a buck which he had wounded a few minutes 
before. 

It was summertime and very hot ; yet because the road 
to the place was too bad for a Cape cart my father decided 
to ride. Accompanied by Mr Ingram and Mr George 
Crawford, we had a ride over the hills in the burning 
sun. 

At last we came to the edge of a chff, and away down 
in the valley below us lay the white farmhouse and its 
out-buildings. On the sward around the house were the 
waggons, carts and horses of those attending the funeral. 
In order to reach the house we had to dismount and 
lead the horses down a steep decline, almost too rough 
and steep for us to walk down ourselves ; at the bottom 
we remounted and crossed a rocky stream. 

It is extremely difficult for me to realize that at that 
time my father was fifty-eight years of age. Now I can 
see that for a man of his age this kind of travelling was 
much too trying. 

In front of the house, in the shade of a tree, the funeral 
service was held. When amid deep silence the beautiful 
voice had spoken words of comfort and hope, the sad pro- 
cession was formed. The coffin was carried by the dead 
youth's " mates," as the Dutch would put it, up a narrow 
red path and laid in a grave on the hillside in view of 
the house. The burial service was read and the customary 
handfuls of earth were thrown in, rushes were strewed on 
the coffin, and we returned to the homestead. 

After an interval in which coffee and cake were handed 
round, there was a general " inspanning " of horses and oxen 
and a saddling up of riding horses. We rode home through 
the valleys — for there were more than one — in the evening 
sunshine, having to cross the same stream half-a-dozen 
times, as the road wound downwards with the river. 



MANY-SIDED WORK AT HANKEY 487 

FiNGo Church 

It was summertime. The sun had set, illuminating with 
golden light the fertile valley, the red kranzes, and the 
distant mountains. In the village the usual evening occupa- 
tions were being concluded. The natives who had cows or 
goats had milked them, and put them in the kraals made of 
thorn bushes or of aloe hedge. At last the many sounds 
of village life gave place to a quiet which was broken only 
now and then by sounds of laughter or of talking, and here 
and there the lights of the cottages shone out. 

We also had had our cows milked and led into the cow- 
shed. The horses came up from their evening drink at the 
stream. My father, walking or standing in the large yard 
with one of his daughters or a grandchild with him, looked 
with critical eye at the animals, patted and spoke to one or 
other of them, and made some remark to the native boy 
about them. Then we had our evening meal, the hour of 
which followed in primitive fashion the coming on of dark- 
ness. This evening we were slightly earlier than usual, as 
my father had to go over to a meeting in the Fingo Church. 

The native minister, whose name is Nathaniel Matodlana, 
had on different occasions had troublous times in his church. 
Many a time he came over and held long talks with my 
father, receiving the help he sought. On this occasion he 
had asked my father to go over and listen to the discussion 
of some irritating question by the native deacons and advise 
with them. 

I went to keep my father company. We had to drive in 
the starlight, through the river and up the steep hill to the 
Fingo village where the white church shone through the 
dark. We entered the church and waited for a time till the 
deacons dropped in, dressed in their Sunday clothes. 

The discussion was carried on in two languages, Dutch 
and Kaffir. Those of the deacons who could only speak 
Kaffir fluently were interpreted by their minister into Dutch. 
Now and then my father would put a question to him in 
English, which he also knew well. 

One after another the disputants rose and spoke, 
vehemently or not as the case might be, but all lengthily 
and some with a certain rough oratory. , Time passed, and 
my father sat almost silent while the case was being argued 
out. Now and then he rose and brought them back to the 



488 JOHN MACKENZIE 

point at issue, perhaps making clear to them the position 
they had reached and giving them a lead in the right 
direction. As time wore on lines of physical tiredness 
showed themselves on his face, but no sign of haste or 
wish to curtail matters was visible. 

I had been watching the scene from a side bench, with 
the eye of one gazing on a picture of the struggle between 
good and evil, between light and darkness. The full light 
of the one hanging lamp shone on the grand head, the hair 
nearly white, the noble brow and the strong, patient, tired 
face. Before him, the first row in full light, the second row 
half in the shadow, were the dark faces of eight or nine men, 
with evil passions struggling for mastery. 

At last, after a discussion of nearly three hours' duration, 
they were addressed by " Meinheer," whom they all honoured. 
The case was summed up by him, his conclusions based on 
reasons made clear to them. Then came the fresh cool air, 
the drive home, the splashing of the water, as the eager 
horses trotted into the river. 

While Mackenzie was thus engaged in the in- 
dustrial and spiritual development of the community, 
he w^as also deeply interested in, as well as responsible 
for the educational work. The district school, which 
was annually visited by a Government inspector, and 
which earned a Government grant, was watched over 
by him with very great care, especially as his own 
daughters became teachers in it. He had not been 
in Hankey long before extensive educational plans 
began to germinate in his mind. If Hankey was to 
become a rich, fruit-farming district, connected by 
railway with Port Elizabeth, and later with Cape 
Town, why should it not also become a great educa- 
tional centre, the Lovedale of that portion of the 
Colony ? The Society owned a rich estate, which 
could be made in many ways to subserve such an 
enterprise. In his imagination he saw arising there 
a school for the general education and manual training 
of coloured boys and girls ; who should be sent out 
thoroughly , fitted for an active and earnest life as 



MANY-SIDED WORK AT HANKEY 489 

school-workers, and whose exertions should help to 
stir ambitions in the sluggish hearts of other members 
of their race. He saw also an advanced school for 
the training of native preachers, a theological institu- 
tion that should provide trained men for the ordained 
ministry among the coloured churches. 

In the last year of his life he was working upon 
this project for a school, and carried on constant 
correspondence concerning it, not only with the 
Directors of the Society in London, but with his 
old friend Mr Henry Beard of Cape Town. From 
a very interesting account of his relations with 
Mackenzie and estimate of his life-work and character, 
kindly supplied by Mr Beard, the following paragraphs 
may be selected as relevant here : — 

Of these results in reference to the temporalities at 
Hankey, a London merchant of large business experience, 
who visited Hankey in 1897, in the interests of the London 
Missionary Society, wrote to me in the following words : 
"John Mackenzie is doing well; he is consolidating the 
estate and when he leaves, I am confident it will be more 
valuable than ever it was." To his friends it must be one 
of the perplexing instances of the fact that God's " thoughts 
are not our thoughts," to find that he was not permitted to 
carry out these projects, to the conception and advocacy of 
which he had given so much time and thought, during the 
later years of his administration of Hankey Mission Station. 
He cleared the ground and laid the foundations, and " another 
buildeth thereon." 

The nature of the projects alluded to and the considera- 
tions by which they were supported, are strikingly illustra- 
tive of the character of one who was eminently a practical 
man of shrewd common sense, and yet was always moving 
on the plane of the higher life and with a simple directness 
pursuing the highest ends. Mr Mackenzie was of opinion 
that the estate could be profitably devoted to fruit-growing. 
He looked for this to be carried out by means of a com- 
mercial association in the hands of business men, who would 
work the industry on lines that would yield a moderate return 
on the capital, but who would not be indifferent to the interests 



490 



JOHN MACKENZIE 



of the labourers, whose advantage was Mr Mackenzie's primary 
aim. In a memorandum on the whole subject, he made 
suggestions as to two modes of dealing with the matter from 
the business point of view, but he added, "You will not 
expect me to go into the strain of a company floater " — a 
bit of quiet humour, very characteristic. For to anyone 
who knew him, nothing could be more amusing than this 
ironical suggestion of John Mackenzie as a company 
promoter. He was content, having pointed out the way 
in such matters, to leave the carrying out to others, while 
he busied himself with other aspects of the project, the 
higher interests which it was to subserve. Still, while turn- 
ing his attention more to the details of those higher interests, 
he looked to the fruit-growing scheme as one not simply to 
bring regular wages to his people, but to " introduce fresh 
ideas and liberal thoughts." Another of his proposals was 
for the establishment at Hankey of a school of higher grade 
than the mission school, for the children of the better class 
in the coloured churches throughout the colony, with manual 
training for both girls and boys. In connection with this, 
he proposed to have a class for Evangelists, eventually from 
those who had attended the school, who would be qualified 
for their work by a course of sound Biblical instruction, 
supplemented by Evangelistic work in the neighbourhood. 
While submitting his schemes to the London Missionary 
Society and his friends, he proceeded to have the bricks 
made for the four to six cottages which were to be provided 
for the Evangelists. He reported that these bricks were 
made as payment of what otherwise would be bad debts, 
and that if his proposals are not accepted, which he cannot 
anticipate, the bricks can be sold — a worthy example of 
Scottish prudence in pushing a forward policy. This project 
of religious education he urged upon the Missionary Society, 
as a fitting development and coping-stone of all its earlier 
work in the Colony, from which it is finally withdrawing. 
In the same memorandum he detailed the wants of the 
Dutch-speaking and the Fingo coloured people, and pro- 
posed to provide adequately for the pastoral care of both, 
and even of European residents, as a part of the whole 
scheme and in connection with the foregoing. There is 
the impress of the man of broad views throughout the 
entire document and its proposals. 

The Institution of Hankey is to be for the enrichment 



MANY-SIDED WORK AT HANKEY 491 

of South Africa, because it would come to be a centre of 
more valuable influence in a country which is undoubtedly 
so much in need of it. The presence of missionaries coming 
direct from England is to be desired, not only for the sake 
of the churches that they serve, but because it has a bene- 
ficial effect on colonial society, when "there is a strong 
tendency in the Cape Colony to level downwards towards 
the Transvaal policy ! " 

While it is true, as we have seen, that Mackenzie 
was able to watch some of the best blessings flowing 
from his labours in Hankey, it ought to be said that 
he was not one of those who cherish an impatient 
eagerness for a visible and personal triumph, or even 
for palpable and measurable " results." Two extracts 
bearing on this very point may be given here from 
letters to his dear friend, Mr Charles G. Oates : — 

Hankey, i-^th Dec. 1895. 

Allow me, dear friend, to send you very warm greetings at 
the close of the year, and best wishes for 1896 and for all your 
future. It has occurred to me to mention to you what I 
have often taken to heart as a lesson : that results are in 
the hands of God. It is for us to do our work faithfully 
— that is our part. When we come short in that, as alas ! 
we do, we must be humbled and sorry ; but as to the 
results, they are not our department — they are in God's 
hands. 

June 25, 1897. 

There is one thought in connection with this that I want 
to mention to you, if I have not done so before, and it is 
this. I think you did all your share of what might have 
been a most gratifying success. The actual outcome does 
not change what you did ; that lies with others ; and part 
of it with Him who is over us all, and whose orderings, 
however mysterious and at times disappointing, are yet 
the expression of a Father's wisdom and love. A succes- 
sion of bad seasons, and the approach of an insidious 
disease, combined to make commercial success impossible 

to poor . From all I can gather, however, 

he himself seems to have become more spiritually minded 
during his last illness. 



492 JOHN MACKENZIE 

During the Hankey years, Mackenzie's domestic 
life had some elements of joy and some of sorrow 
which he had hardly tasted before. He now had 
a home for his daughters, to which also two of his 
sons were able to make occasional visits, and in 
which he had the peculiar and tender delight of 
sometimes seeing little grandchildren running about. 
He, of course, won their hearts as completely as they 
won his. In January 1895, he, for the first time, 
gave away one of his daughters in marriage, when 
Jane Alice became the wife of James Campbell 
Rodger, now of Bulawayo, Rhodesia. He passed 
through a very strange and painful experience, how- 
ever, when he received a succession of announcements 
from Scotland within a few weeks or months of each 
other, of the deaths of his own brother and his four 
sisters. To this he refers in a letter which he wrote 
to Mr Charles Oates, regarding the death of his re- 
maining brother, Mr W. E. Oates : — 

Hankey, Cape Colony, 
^th May 1896. 

My Dear Friend, — Your letter with the very sad news 
from Madeira has just come to hand; and I have the 
opportunity of at once acknowledging it. I have also 
received the Suffolk and Essex Free Press, which contains 
some mention of your brother as known to his neighbours. 
... I send you this note at once, to be, as it were, a grasp 
of the hand, at this time of great sorrow which has come to 
you. Mrs Mackenzie and I deeply sympathise with your 
sister-in-law in her deep affliction, and my heart is sore for 
the dear children who lose so tender and loving a father. 

Do not lose heart in your loneliness — grasp the pilgrim- 
staff more firmly. Each one of us must work out his day 
resolutely and with his very best efforts. The Master has 
still something for us to do. Others drop from our side ; 
we work and wait his call. I think I mentioned to you 
that soon after I came here my only brother and four 
sisters — all of them older than myself — followed one another 
within a short time to the grave. It made a deep and, I 



.1 



MANY-SIDED WORK AT HANKEY 493 

trust, abiding impression on my mind, as the solitary re- 
maining one of the family. But some time after, in writing 
to a young friend about this, I remarked that, notwithstand- 
ing what had happened, I might live to be as old as Old 
Parr. Each one is immortal till his work is done. — We join 
in sincerest sympathy, and I remain ever yours sincerely, 

John Mackenzie. 



CHAPTER XIX 

AFRICA LAST CONTRIBUTIONS TO IMPERIAL 

POLITICS (1892- 1 898) 

When Mackenzie went to Hankey, he knew that 
his political history was practically at an end, that 
from that spot he could never continuously influence 
public opinion, either at home or in South Africa. 
And indeed, as we have seen, the work which he had 
undertaken was so extensive and so absorbing that 
for many months he hardly allowed himself to read 
the newspapers, or to think of the outside world. 
But as affairs at Hankey came gradually under 
control, his mind could not but return to the wider 
interests with which he had been so closely identified. 
From the year 1892 his correspondence in various 
directions shows how closely he watched political 
events, and how earnestly he tried, in what ways were 
possible to him, to reach the minds of those who 
wielded power in London or at Cape Town. 

In 1895 he welcomed Mr Chamberlain to the 
Colonial Office with peculiar delight and expectancy. 
At this time he wrote to his third son, now a barrister 
at Kimberley, as follows : — 

Hankey, indjuly 1895. 
My Dear Jim, — It is a wonderful change from Lord 
Ripen to Mr Chamberlain at the Colonial Office. Annexa- 
tion is not now quite where it would have been, or might 
have been in Ripon's hands. 

Of course, it will depend on what has been done by the 
late ministry. 
494 



r 

II 

t \ 

d 



IMPERIAL POLITICS 495 

So far as I am personally concerned, there is no first- 
class statesman who has so identified hiipself with my views 
as Mr Chamberlain has done. It so happens that a letter 
of mine to him is now on the ocean, referring to annexation 
especially, and saying what I think should be done. This 
was, of course, to enable him effectually to oppose the ex- 
pulsion of the Imperial Government from active affairs in 
South Africa ; for that is what Mr Rhodes really means — 
the Cape Colony to get one slice, and the Chartered 
Company the other slice, of old Bechuanaland. 

It may all happen yet ; but it is not quite so likely now. 
We are all in God's hands. I hear from Bechuanaland 
that people — white people — informed Reuter, Cape Town, 
that a petition (or petitions) was in circulation against 
annexation. Reuter did not publish the information ; but 
he published the views of a Mr Theal who is up there, and 
wired them over the Colony. This gentleman is, I believe, 
a land surveyor, and has a right to his view, which is for 
annexation. 

Shortly after Mr Chamberlain's appointment, two 
remarkable events occurred, v^hich focussed attention 
upon the new^ Secretary. The first was the re- 
appointment of Sir Hercules Robinson (later Lord 
Rosmead), as High Commissioner for South Africa 
and Governor of Cape Colony. There can be no 
doubt that this most unexpected step was taken at 
the instance of Mr Rhodes, and that its fruit was 
seen in a few months' time, when the Jameson 
Raid occurred. 

The other event was the visit to England of three 
Bechuanaland chiefs, of whom, of course, the best 
known and most powerful was Khame. They went 
to England expressly to protest against the pro- 
posal that North Bechuanaland should be handed 
over by the Imperial Government to the Chartered 
Company. 

It is aside from our story to narrate the interesting 
and impressive progress which Khame made through 
England and Scotland, and the agreement at which 



496 JOHN MACKENZIE 

Mr Chamberlain arrived, by which a strip of Khame's 
territory on his eastern border — which was not to 
exceed, at its widest, ten miles — was handed over 
to the Company for the purpose of building a railway 
to Bulawayo. It was in connection with the proposed 
annexation of North Bechuanaland, which Khame's 
visit defeated, that Mackenzie wrote the following 
important letter to Mr Chamberlain : — 

Hankey, Cape Colony, 
z\thjuly 1895. 

Dear Mr Chamberlain, — I regard it as remarkable that 
I should have felt moved to write to you as I did some weeks 
ago on South African affairs. I had been silent for years. 
But the time to speak out and prevent weak people from 
doing wrong, partly from ignorance, partly from weakness, 
seemed to have come. Little did I think that my letter 
would find you in charge of the Colonial Department. Of 
course, so far as pushing one's views is concerned, I have 
been personally out of it since 1891. But the views remain; 
they are those of all leading minds. The wonder is, how- 
ever, that Mr Rhodes has not sooner had his way, so 
persistent are his people and so heedless as to their 
statements. You will be confronted with the question 
of the disposal of Bechuanaland, the Protectorate, and 
Khame's country. 

As to the Crown Colony, you have it quite in your choice 
to hold it in Imperial hands, although the Cape Parliament 
has agreed to take it over. You will thank them for that 
kind offer, but it is one of those points on which you 
would wish to have more light, before taking so important 
a step. 

The opposition in Bechuanaland to the annexation to the 
Cape Colony is too serious for Her Majesty's Government to 
proceed hastily with that measure. As to the Protectorate 
and Khame's country, the whole of that territory has, in your 
view, occupied the same position since 1885, in connection 
with Her Majesty's Government. The Chief Khame was 
taken specially under Her Majesty's Protection ; and the 
Earl of Derby, the then Secretary of State, specially requested 
that the chief should then be acquainted with that fact, and 



IMPERIAL POLITICS 497 

that the Protection should be a real one. This was done, 
Sir C. Warren visiting Khame personally.^ Thus in 1885 
we took under our protection a chief whose territory extended 
northward to the River Zambesi. 

Nothing that map-makers could afterwards do in London, in 
the way of colouring maps, could interfere with this historical 
establishment of an Imperial Protectorate over Khame in 
1885. 

Mr Rhodes ought to be well content with the territories of 
Lobengula, Mashonaland and Matabeleland, which his 
Company has secured by conquest, a conquest in which 
he was very materially assisted by the Imperial Government. 
He may have indisputable titles to a great many things north 
of the Zambesi ; I don't know. But he has no title at all, and 
practically not a leg to stand on, in Bechuanaland Protec- 
torate or Khame's country. I consider that the thing is unheard 
of, that an Imperial Protectorate, against the wishes of all its 
people, should be handed over by the Imperial Government 
to a commercial company. Why, even the Cape Parliament 
speakers in the recent debate called this a hole-and-corner 
proceeding. At present the Imperial Government is synony- 
mous with weakness and unreliableness. It is openly reviled 
out here by such men as Mr Rhodes. I should dearly like to 
see this all changed. It would be easy to make the Imperial 
Government well-liked by both natives and Dutch-speaking 
people if our Government were in charge of such a country as 
we are now speaking of. The natives would get justice and 
would have confidence, the unoccupied tracts of country 
would be opened up and used by settlers. The Government 
of this Colony would soon come to take up a position of 
influence in South Africa, and a distinct advance would be 
given to a future confederation of South Africa. I need not 
say, what I have often said before, that this is without doubt 
the natural destiny of the country ; but that nothing tends to 
hinder this more than the present movements of Mr Rhodes 
and his policy, and that of Sir H. Robinson, of always 
aggrandizing the Cape Colony. The other countries won't be 
sat upon, they will not consent, they have finally refused to 
be swallowed up by the Cape Colony. I beg to tender my 
sincere congratulations to you on filling the office, which I 
remember you once told me it would be your desire to fill, if 



I 



^ See "Austral Africa," ii., 209, 210. Blue Book, C. 4432, p. 48. 

2 I 



498 JOHN MACKENZIE 

ever you came to be offered a seat in a Cabinet. I trust you 
will leave your mark in Downing Street, and especially 
influence its officials as Englishmen, to be ashamed of being 
outdone and superseded by the officials of a Chartered 
Company — Englishmen like themselves, and, like them- 
selves, responsible to the British House of Commons. — 
Ever yours, John Mackenzie. 

Concerning the Jameson Raid itself, Mackenzie re- 
mained almost entirely silent. Like all lovers of South 
Africa, he felt the shock to the depths of his soul. 
He refers to Mr Chamberlain's attitude in passing 
allusions, and speaks most highly of his firmness, 
dignity, and courage. But the revelations which 
occurred from month to month, and culminated in 
the disclosures before the Committee of the House 
of Commons, never received any sustained criticism, 
as far as can be found, from his pen. 

At the close of the year 1 8 9 5 , he was asked by the 
editor of The Contemporary Review to write an article, 
which he did, upon the British South African Company, 
with special reference to its conduct of the first war^ 
and its native policy in Matabeleland and Mashona- 
land. 

This article appeared in The ConteTnporary Review 
for March 1896, and it attracted a great deal of } 
attention, both in England and in Cape Colony. 
Having gained direct information from many sources, 
and possessing a close personal knowledge, not only 
of the country of which he spoke, but of the customs 
and prejudices of the native races, he was able to 
estimate the conduct of the Company with peculiar 
authority. He says that he had been silent regarding 
the Company, avoiding all criticism of a public 
character, for seven years ; but that he felt the time 
had now come for passing judgment upon the manner 
in which it had fulfilled the task assumed by it and 
laid upon it by the Imperial Government He found 



IMPERIAL POLITICS 499 

that his own predictions had been abundantly fulfilled, 
and his worst fears realised. The Company's affairs 
were conducted by men who did not possess the 
imperial spirit, nor acted towards subject races as 
British Imperial officers are universally expected to 
act. 

In the first section of his article Mackenzie described 
the earlier methods of the Company in opening up 
Mashonaland for its European settlers. It did not 
appear that even in relation to the white men who 
entered under its aegis, the Company's policy was 
broad-minded and successful. Before long these 
white men found that the conditions of life were 
harder and the prospects of profitable gold-mining 
were poorer than they had been led to expect. The 
Company was unable to open up its mines in Mashona- 
land so as to make profitable returns. On the other 
hand, the Company found itself in a country where the 
native population was ready to give it a warm welcome. 
Industrious workers in iron and cotton who had been 
long oppressed by the cruel Matabele were led to 
expect that the Company, representing England, 
would bring peace and justice with it to their land. 
It was through the position of protector of the 
Mashonas that the Company was first brought into 
conflict with the Matabele. The Matabele resented 
the Company's interference with their custom of 
massacring the Mashonas, and turned upon their 
white protectors. The result was the invasion of 
Matabeleland by the Company, with the aid of 
Imperial forces operating from the south-west. The 
Matabele were mowed down by the Maxim guns, and 
at last, finding themselves unable to come to close 
quarters with their enemy, gave up in despair, and 
fled. This victory gave the Company for the first 
time the sovereignty of the whole country. This was 
a splendid opportunity for " establishing their claim 



500 JOHN MACKENZIE 

to supersede the Imperial Government." Alas, the 
Company's administrators struck out a native policy 
" entirely at variance with what is generally known as 
British native policy." Mackenzie says : " It is 
capable of proof that the Company's management 
of native affairs has been a complete failure." This 
strong indictment he argues with abundance of 
evidence from actual events, which he cites through 
five pages of the article. The most foolish feature 
in the administration of the Company was its enrol- 
ment and drill of six or seven hundred young Matabele 
soldiers to act as native police, and the removal south- 
ward before the Jameson Raid " of so many white men 
with guns and ammunition — all of which eventually 
fell into the hands of President Kruger." The darkest 
spot in their policy was, to Mackenzie's mind, their 
method of compelling the natives to work in the 
service of the Company. Their effort " to re-establish 
forced labour in South Africa as a permanent institu- 
tion " was, he maintains, without reason, there being no 
ground for the complaint that there was a scarcity of 
labour. 

Regarding the relation of the Company to Cape 
Colony, Mackenzie had some things to say which 
involved continual reference to the personality of Mr 
Rhodes ; for the link of connection between the two 
was to be found in the fact that he was at that time 
both manager of the Chartered Company and Prime 
Minister of the Cape Colony. He had some more 
strong things to say regarding the claim that Mr 
Rhodes " had been allaying race feeling in the Cape 
Colony." The process of amalgamation of the races 
he showed to have been going on steadily and naturally 
without any assistance from any one individual human 
being, and he believed that the process would go on 
faster if men would cease to discuss it as if racial 
hatred were increasing instead of disappearing. Mr 



IMPERIAL POLITICS 501 

Rhodes as a Cape politician had won the admiration 
" of two opposing parties in the Cape Colony for 
opposite reasons." There was a section of patriotic 
Englishmen who believed in his Imperialism, while on 
the other hand the Africander Bond " admired and 
loved Mr Rhodes because he was so un-English in 
his views." " As a politician the late Premier's votes 
have always been with the Bond ; sometimes, as on 
the Excise question, he has been the only Englishman 
voting with them." 

The next section discusses the relation of the 
Company to the South African Republics, in which 
the writer says that it is viewed by them " with the 
utmost aversion." He pointed out with great vigour 
that the policy of the Chartered Company had actually 
led both natives and Dutch Republicans " to call for 
the Imperial Government to step in instead of the 
Company, and resume the position which it should 
never have abdicated." Mackenzie had no doubt that 
the policy of the Company, as disclosed by its entire 
dealings with the natives, the Colonists, and Repub- 
licans, and as fully revealed in the Jameson Raid, 
" was to place the Transvaal, and afterwards South 
Africa, under the Chartered Company." The Raid 
failed, because " the root-idea — the commercial com- 
pany idea — on which the attempted revolution was 
based, was a false one." It " was founded on the idea 
that money could do everything." What Mackenzie 
described as the conspicuous failure of the Chartered 
Company in South Africa, led to the problem of its 
future ; and on this point he believed that nothing less 
was possible than rescinding the Company's Charter. 
This of course would bear merely upon the functions 
of Government, leaving the entire and vast work of 
developing the rich and extensive gold mines of 
Mashonaland and Matabeleland as the sole responsi- 
bility of the Company. " In the meantime," he adds. 



502 



JOHN MACKENZIE 



" the duty and privilege of Britain is in 1897 what it 
was in 1889 — only much emphasised by the history 
of the intervening years — to administer the affairs of 
the country in its present stage of development, and 
to place that administration under the supreme control 
of those who should not be mixed up with other South 
African affairs." 

It may be added that this article, which very soon 
passed out of print, not only made a very strong 
impression upon its readers, but has never received, so 
far as the present writer knows, an authoritative reply 
to its deadly criticisms. The following letter refers 
to it : — 

Han KEY, Zth January 1896. 

My Dear Mr Oates, — ... I have sent home an article 
on " The Chartered Company in South Africa : A Review 
and Criticism," which I hope may appear in the Contemporary 
in February. 

I have had special and reliable information from Matabele- 
land, and the facts will, I think, astonish the ordinary English 
reader. Having the telegraphic wire in their own hands, and 
having also some English papers ever ready to back them up, 
the Company has got to occupy a position to which it would 
appear it has not the slightest title, judging from what it has 
actually done. 

Its native policy has been a complete failure, and a dis- 
grace to Great Britain. 

It was almost inconceivable that the long oppressed 
Mashonas should have sided with their oppressors, the 
Matabele, rather than with the white men, who, it was 
supposed, were their friends and protectors. I was for weeks 
here, refusing to believe that the Mashonas had also risen, till 
at last the evidence was undeniable. 

While our general native policy was such that the Mashonas 
preferred to fight along with the Matabele rather than assist 
the white man, in Matabeleland the Company undoubtedly 
established forced labour as a permanent institution. In- 
credible, you say ; nevertheless the fact. The Company has 
lowered us far below the Transvaal Boers as to the treatment 
of the natives. 



IMPERIAL POLITICS 503 

In short, if Old England stands where she stood as to fair 
dealing and righteousness, it is impossible that this charter 
of the Company can be renewed. Of course that would not 
interfere with the Company's gold mines, or with their rail- 
ways, so absolutely indispensable to the profitable working 
of the mines. 

I do not know whether you have noticed it — that the 
leading men in the Cape Colony have objected to the past 
methods, while the Transvaal and the Free State have un- 
expectedly called on the Imperial Government to assume 
the authority delegated to the Company. It would certainly 
give England a position of vantage, so far as those States are 
concerned, if she assumed the government in the northern 
country at the call and suggestion of those who are supposed 
to be so much opposed to our government. — With kindest 
regards, I am, ever yours sincerely, John Mackenzie. 

In 1896 Mackenzie's mind was kept brooding over 
the problem presented by the Transvaal. The Jame- 
son Raid drew the attention of all thoughtful men to 
study the conditions in the South African Republic 
which made such an event possible. However guilty 
Mr Rhodes and Dr Jameson had been, it was quite 
evident that their plan was suggested by the state of 
affairs at Johannesburg ; and Johannesburg was not 
composed of a class of people likely to be embroiled 
in political insurrections either for the sake of amuse- 
ment or because they were anxious to be " in politics." 
Quite evidently the leaders of such a community 
would naturally wish to be let alone to pursue their 
business ambitions, and would rebel simply when 
business was being rendered impossible. Mackenzie, 
having given much attention to the situation, resolved 
to embody his conclusions in a letter addressed 
directly to President Kruger. As this letter, which 
he dated from Hankey on June 18, 1896, grew 
under his hand, he resolved to make it an open letter, 
written in the first place in Dutch and sent to 
the leading Dutch papers, but forWarded also in an 
English form to the English papers. We have no 



504 JOHN MACKENZIE 

assurance, of course, that it was ever read to Pre- 
sident Kruger, who for some years had made himself 
dependent almost entirely upon the aid of a private 
secretary and reader. It is not at all probable that 
the President's advisers would consider this clear, 
strong, earnest letter such an one as should reach Mr 
Kruger's ears. 

The letter is constructed on lines which a true 
South African would recognise at once as being ap- 
propriate to a Dutchman's habits of mind and pre- 
judices. As he would be, so it is, frankly religious, 
basing some of its most powerful pleas upon the 
principles of righteousness and the sense of respon- 
sibility to God. After an introductory paragraph, 
Mackenzie recalled a former occasion on which he 
and the President had met ; then he passed to one of 
his fundamental positions. The Transvaal had indeed 
been first invaded by the " Voortrekkers," who were 
farmers, and who there found a land prepared for 
them. But the country to which they went was a 
country prepared by the Almighty, not only for the 
farmer, but for the gold-seeker and the gold-miner. 
To this idea he returns several times, driving it home 
in such fashion as to reach the conscience of any 
open-minded Dutchman. In a later paragraph he 
says : — 

As a matter of fact the Republic is to-day the country of 
the gold-miner just as it is the country of the farmer, and it 
is unjust as well as impolitic not to admit this fact in a 
practical way. The present condition as to population has 
not been brought about by any human policy or planning ; 
it has happened in the providence of God ; and it has there- 
fore occurred for the ultimate good of all the inhabitants. 

He recognises that President Kruger has, " in God's 
providence," been called to a very hard task. " David's 
call from the sheep-cote was not so sudden as the call 
to Your Honour to rule over this influx of popula- 



IMPERIAL POLITICS 505 

tion." This influx had found the farmers unready to 
meet the new conditions. 

With great delicacy Mackenzie attempts to lay the 
responsibility for the failure, not upon President 
Kruger personally, but upon the unwillingness of his 
" farmer Raad " to grant equality to the new people 
because they were miners. Then he shows that these 
gold-miners came from the best countries in the world, 
and were men of education and character, and strikes 
hard upon one delicate spot when he asks, " When 
did the custom begin, to make a difference among 
white men, and to say that some were citizens and 
others were not ? " This policy was not only con- 
trary to South African tradition ; it was contrary to 
the principles of a republic, " The people of a re- 
public are the real governors of the land." An appeal 
was made to the experience of California, and Aus- 
tralia, and New Zealand to prove that it was possible 
for farmers and miners to work together prosperously 
in the same country ; it could not be to the miners' 
advantage to do any harm to the land they lived in 
and from which they gained their wealth. Broadly 
he says, " The action of the farmers is to blame for 
the present unhappy, un-Christian, and dangerous 
state of things." Thus he comes upon the use by the 
South African Republic of the term " Uitlander " to 
describe all new white residents ; and he puts his 
finger on another of the sensitive spots in the Trans- 
vaal body politic, when he urges that the President is 
not consistent in the use of the term, for there are 
some new residents strictly " Uitlanders " whom he 
receives to full favour, and whom he uses to the detri- 
ment of the rest of the " Uitlanders." 

It is said, and Your Honour will be able to judge of the 
truth of the statement, that the gold-miner is one of those 
parties, and the speculative "Uitlander," who lives off the 
gold-mining industry is the other. It is freely declared that 



5o6 JOHN MACKENZIE 

Your Honour's Government has been more or less used by 
the speculative class of " Uitlanders " to enrich themselves at 
the expense of the real producers of the wealth of the 
country. 

Such an accusation, he urges, could only be silenced 
by a policy of justice to the miners. He proceeds in 
succeeding paragraphs to warn President Kruger that 
there is no possibility of European intervention in the 
interests of the South African Republic. 

They (European Powers) all know that the Republic is, 
by its own agreement, under the suzerainty of Great Britain. 
As Great Britain has no mind to retire from that suzerainty, 
it follows that any competing agreement between the Re- 
public and any other European Power — if such a thing 
existed — would be regarded by Britain as a hostile action 
both on Your Honour's part and on the part of the European 
Power in question. 

War would not remove his troubles, but rather 
create conditions under which they would re-awaken ; 
and those who brought the war on would carry the 
responsibility of a shameful undertaking ; " blood 
would be shed, antipathies roused, the Merciful 
Saviour of all men — miners as well as farmers — 
deeply offended, and the beneficial result of it all — 
nothing, absolutely nothing." 

There can be no doubt of the sincere efforts of Her 
Majesty's Government to allay such warlike feeling, and 
to lead towards the peaceful settlement of all difficulties. 
It will be for Your Honour and for your Raad to cherish 
equal self-restraint, and to lead the minds of the farmer 
population in the way of peace. 

In dealing with recent events, he deeply regrets 
" the recent invasion of the Republic by the officers 
and men of the British South African Company." 
But such events were not in times past unfamiliar to 
President Kruger. He reminds President Kruger that 
he himself once " took the field at the head of one 



IMPERIAL POLITICS 507 

armed section of the burghers against another armed 
section of the farmers " ; and that he had again been 
concerned in 1 879 in the movement against the annexa- 
tion by Great Britain. In each of these instances he 
and his companions felt their cause to be good, and 
their warfare righteous ; so felt the miners about their 
intended insurrection. He must not, therefore, mix up 
the miners, who only sought to have their grievances 
removed, and their political claims recognised, " with 
the perfectly unjustifiable actions of the officers of the 
Chartered Company." For Mackenzie, the grim pro- 
spects which he describes in a later paragraph, arose 
from the fact that President Kruger admitted no 
responsibility for the conditions which prompted the 
miners to their desperate movement. 

" There is no promise of redress of grievances, no regret 
expressed, that under Your Honour's Government a body 
of intelligent men should have been driven to try an armed 
demonstration after every constitutional method had failed." 
His present advisers were, he said, " enemies of peace and 
goodwill in South Africa." "The miners are not even like 
the mercantile class, members of which often leave the 
Republic when their children grow up. . . . The miners are 
like the farmers — they have come to stay." 

The President ought to face his Raad with a 
settled policy in his mind, " of welding together the 
two classes of your people by gradual and well 
thought out measures." If they refused, he had 
constitutional means for dissolving the Raad and 
making an appeal to the burghers, demanding that 
if he were to continue their President, they must 
change their policy towards the miners ; and this 
appeal, Mackenzie would, with all confidence, address 
to their Christian conscience. This conclusion, he 
urged, would " be the crowning achievement " in Mr 
Kruger's career, by which he would lay " the founda- 
tions of a united community at peace within itself. 



5o8 JOHN MACKENZIE 

and in harmony with the general aims and aspira- 
tions of the rest of South Africa." 

This letter, which appeared in the Cape Times^ July 
20, 1896, was reprinted in pamphlet form, and was 
read all over South Africa. It is, in the opinion of 
the present writer, one of the best pieces of work 
which Mackenzie ever did as regards the mere matters 
of style, and of consecutive and convincing argument. 
It is a model at once of frankness and courtesy, of 
insight into the mind addressed, and into the best 
means for persuading it. 

In 1897, his correspondence shows that Mackenzie 
was watching very closely, and with much anxiety, the 
course of events in the Cape Colony, as well as in the 
Transvaal. He was indignant at the deliberateness 
with which party leaders emphasised the influence of 
race upon political life in the Colony. To this he 
refers very indignantly in a letter to his friend, Mr Henry 
Beard of Cape Town. 

In this letter he uses the expression, " Stick to 
opinions only," an idea and an injunction which he 
repeatedly insisted upon. He held that as long as 
men discussed South African industrial and social 
problems as race-problems, they strengthened the 
Africander Bond, and rooted it more deeply in the 
affections of its own supporters ; but the moment that 
fair-minded, clear-headed, justice-loving men began to 
discuss opinions^ to advocate broad policies on their 
merits, and in doing this to ignore racial distinctions, 
that moment they began to sow discord amongst the 
members of the various races themselves. Mackenzie 
spoke from experience. In a discussion of practical 
policies on grounds of justice, in a discussion of 
political opinions in the light of the future of South 
Africa as a whole, Mackenzie had found it easy to 
divide not only Englishmen but even Dutchmen also, 
against one another, and so to make possible the re- 



IMPERIAL POLITICS 509 

arrangement of party affiliations, not on racial, but on 
purely political lines. 

Hankey, May ()ih, '97. 

Dear Mr Beard, — I have to acknowledge the receipt of a 
copy of the Bazaar Book, which is really very well got up. I 
have not had time to read the stories yet, but have no doubt 
they will be good, in such surroundings. 

Well ! you have been in deep water — or is it a strong 
storm of wind ? — since I left you. You have got a certificate 
of character from Mr Garrett that you ought to be in the 
Cape Parliament — that is something, even although he adds, 
" but not for Cape Town." Why is there no one to tell this 
young man that there are limitations to most men's eye-sight. 
His sight is probably not always good, for he can see no 
difference, or he will see no difference, between Mr Rhodes 
and the Imperial Government. He does a great dis-service 
to his own country and his own Imperial Government by 
constantly making it and Mr Rhodes convertible terms. 
That sort of thing can hardly be done unconsciously. Is it 
possible that it can be done in perfect sincerity ? 

I am heartily sorry for Merriman. What a pity he should 
go so far merely to obtain political advantage. By the way, 
why did the Cape Times say it was a division on race lines ? 
It did not seem to me to be so. 

Mr Innes spoke and acted like a man. Let him stand to 
that ; let him wait till people come to him and say to him, 
" Lead us ; we know our views and we know yours ; be our 
leader." What has been done so long by one minority after 
another has been too degrading — practically to approach the 
Bond and beg to be employed by them in the job of govern- 
ing the Cape Colony. Ignore the Bond's stronghold — that 
of race. Stick to opinions only. On these lines I feel sure 
you will yet see a strong party, with Mr Innes at its head. 
If Mr Rhodes again pushes to the front, it will be a bad thing 
for you all, and for the Colony. He has as yet no opinions ; 
he knows only one process — which is something else than 
politics. — With kind regards to all at Highwick, I am ever 
yours sincerely, John Mackenzie. 

In this year, also, Mackenzie began to correspond 
with one whom he had welcomed most warmly to the 



5IO 



JOHN MACKENZIE 



Colony as its new Governor, Sir Alfred Milner. His 
personal acquaintance with Mr Milner had begun in 
1882, when the latter was a journalist in London. It 
increased to a friendship through much correspondence 
in later years, when Mr Milner was private secretary 
to Mr Goschen. In those years he had prophesied a 
great future for "young Milner," as he sometimes 
called him, and noted with satisfaction his promotion 
to work in Egypt Lord Milner's letters to Mackenzie, 
after his arrival in South Africa, are both numerous 
and very cordial. Once only was Mackenzie able to 
meet the Governor personally. That was on the 
occasion of a journey which Lord Milner made from 
Port Elizabeth along the coast westwards. Mackenzie 
joined his party near Humansdorp, and rode in the 
" cart " with him to that village. There he took part 
in the welcome which was enthusiastically accorded 
by the entire countryside to the new and popular 
representative of the Queen. 

In 1897 there occurred one of the most shameful of 
all transactions in all South Africa — the war between 
the Cape Colony and certain districts of South 
Bechuanaland. After a protracted struggle, in which 
the Colonial Government is accused of having dis- 
played cruelty as well as incapacity, the terrible story 
was closed by the forcible deportation of large numbers 
of the Bechuanaland people to be placed on the farms 
of Boers, in Cape Colony, as unpaid and compulsory 
servants of those farmers. This was done, not only 
by way of reprisal, but nominally for the good of 
these people, and as an indemnity for the expense of 
the war. Even Sir Gordon Sprigg advocated this 
policy, denying that it partook of slavery, and insist- 
ing that it was devised and carried out in a philan- 
thropic spirit. 

Mackenzie had throughout these events remained 
silent, like Achilles, but with better reason, nursing a 



IMPERIAL POLITICS 511 

deep grief in his heart. When urged to speak he 
declined. When asked by his fellow-missionaries in 
Bechuanaland why he was silent, he was able to 
explain that he did not feel that any speech of his 
at this time could do any good. The time for speak- 
ing was years before ; then he had stood alone, un- 
supported, and even opposed by some of the very men 
who now called for his voice. He had then declared 
what would happen if South Bechuanaland were 
annexed to the Colony, and nothing in subsequent 
events had astonished him, except the measure of the 
folly and the injustice. But he did write, at the con- 
clusion of the whole affair, the following important 
letter to his old colleague and friend, Mr J. S. Moffatt, 
to whose hands it now fell to help with the educa- 
tional and religious instruction of the unhappy exiles 
from Bechuanaland. 

Hankey, Cape Colony, 
29M Oct. 1897. 

My Dear Mr Moffat, — I am much obliged to you for 
sending me the copies of the Times and other papers with 
Langberg and other up-country news. 

I am glad that you and those working with you are going 
to test the legality of what the Government has done. I 
noticed that that was Mr Chamberlain's answer to the 
Aborigines Protection Society. — Everything is in the hands 
of a British Colony ; if there is anything wrong, let it come 
out before the law courts of the Colony. 

I am in the position of having foreseen this, and of having 
laboured for years (and for a long time not unsuccessfully) to 
prevent that country from coming into the hands of the 
Colony. I still think it was a profound mistake to have 
joined on South Bechuanaland to the Cape Colony ; it 
increases the difficulties of those who keep before them a 
South African Confederation. So-called leaders have misled 
the Cape Colony with the dream that the Colony would yet 
be practically synonymous with South Africa. This appeal 
to selfishness has become, or is becoming, too absurd for 
belief. In the meantime the annexation of Bechuanaland 
was simply rushed, " Make haste ; annex at once — there is 



512 JOHN MACKENZIE 

a large party against it." That was the advice of the Dictator 
to the Cape Town Parliament, and his advice was taken. 
That advice was not in the interests of the Cape Colony, 
which already as a Government has too much territory. It 
was not in the interests of Bechuanaland, to cease being a 
Territory under the direct control of the Central Government 
in order to become a distant part of the huge Cape Colony. 

The best thing that could be done now in the real interests 
of the Cape Colony — in the interests of all the people of 
Bechuanaland, and especially as looking forward to the 
future Confederation which many good men believe is still 
before us — is for the Cape Colony to give back South 
Bechuanaland to the Imperial Government, to be prepared 
for self-government under its auspices and to be managed in 
conjunction with North Bechuanaland. We should then 
have two Provinces in the North — Rhodesia and Bechuana- 
land — the Zambesi being the northern boundary of both. 
Imperial administration can never retire from Rhodesia now, 
till the country is self-governing. So should it be with refer- 
ence to the Central Country of Bechuanaland — from the 
German line on the West to Rhodesia on the East, and from 
Zambesi on the North to what was the northern boundary of 
the Cape Colony before the recent mischievous annexation. 

It is time for real leaders to lead the Cape Colony, and to 
show them that the extension of the range of the administra- 
tion of the Colony is now a disadvantage, and no longer an 
advantage in the eyes of all who keep steadily in view the 
happy future of a great because United South Africa. The 
country is growing, and is sure to grow. It is for wise men 
to plan that it may grow proportionately and usefully. No 
one wishes to interfere with the self-government of the 
peoples out here. The time will come when the northern 
countries will be able to manage their own affairs. The 
Imperial Government should then retire ; but not till 
then. 

I am fully persuaded that this is the view of the intelligent 
Cape Colonist. He may go north personally ; more likely 
his children will go north. But he is distinctly of opinion 
that the Colonial Government at Cape Town should not 
take in hand with the management of territories so far 
away as Bechuanaland or Rhodesia. He is determined to 
enjoy all the advantages of a British subject in any or all 
the British colonies and countries throughout South Africa ; 



i 



IMPERIAL POLITICS 513 

but he holds it to be unwise for a single Colonial Govern- 
ment to attempt to govern everywhere. 

I was thankful to observe that a committee of ladies had 
been formed in connection with the Bechuanaland prisoners ; 
and I trust that their number will come to include leading 
members of all Christian churches. We all need high ideals 
kept before us. Who is to place them and keep them there 
but the ministers of Christ, and those Christian ladies who 
from the earliest days of Christianity were ever near to Christ 
and to His Cross ? 

I think it is difficult to say how you are to feed and clothe 
those whose food has been destroyed or used up in the late 
protracted disturbance. Feed them you must, as a Christian 
Government : enslave them you may not. As it seems to 
me, you cannot punish those whom you have not tried. A 
state of war was never proclaimed : the right of a trial there- 
fore remained to all. But from a plain Christian man's 
standpoint, who wishes the best to be done in present 
circumstances, if the contracts were altered and made for 
only two years, we should be nearer to the conviction that 
the Government were not enslaving, but only providing food 
and clothing for the destitute survivors of Langberg. If our 
Government did that — changed the engagements to two 
years ; and if they approached the Imperial Government 
with the request that they would resume the administration 
of Bechuanaland, having the future of South Africa in view, 
I think the whole Colony would say that they had got well 
out of what has been a conspicuously bad business. I may 
explain that I have been away from home lately, and not so 
attentive to the newspapers as I ought to be. Thus I did not 
know of the meeting recently held in Cape Town on this 
question till after it was over. Were I to classify myself as 
to Colonial politics, I should like to belong to the Progressive 
Party, and I have sympathy with all Progressive men, without 
reference to their descent. The settlement of the present 
question, in my humble opinion, lies now in the changing of 
the contract to two years, and the giving up of Bechuanaland 
to the Imperial Government, that it may in the future become 
a province in the South Africa of our children, if not of our 
own time. 

I had not intended to write on this matter. My advice 
had been disregarded. Men had not then found out whither 
their dictator was leading them. I write now, because there 

2 K 



514 JOHN MACKENZIE 

are people in the Colony who wish to know my views con- 
cerning a country which I first entered in the end of 1858. 
It now belongs to Progressive men throughout the Colony to 
decide for a sound policy with reference to the North. Have 
all the advantages of it, but leave its vexations and its 
government in the hands of the Central or Imperial Govern- 
ment, until it can govern itself locally. 

I am free to admit that in giving this advice years ago, I 
was following the example of the United States of America — 
holding the young Territory under the Central Government 
at Washington until such time as the "Territory" had 
legally qualified itself to enter the number of the " States," 
and govern itself. — I am, ever yours sincerely, 

John Mackenzie. 

About this time Mackenzie was cheered by receiving 
two requests from England, which showed that he was 
not altogether forgotten in the homeland. One was 
another urgent call from the editor of The Contemporary 
Review for an article on Bechuanaland, and the other 
was a request from Dr MacLeod, the editor of Good 
Words, for three articles on South Africa. The latter 
he entitled " Glances at South Africa," and they 
appeared in the July, August, and September 
numbers of that magazine, in the year 1898, with 
a number of illustrations and photographs. 

T/ie Contemporary Review article appeared in 
February 1898. It occupied sixteen pages, almost 
all of which were given to the recent disturbances 
in Bechuanaland. 

His narrative shows that he deeply suspected 
treachery of a very disagreeable kind behind the 
initial steps of that disturbance in 1897. The in- 
capacity of the Colonial policy was abundantly 
proved, and the deliberate slowness with which the 
necessary steps were taken for arresting murderers 
was thrown into prominence. • Then he set forth the , 
manner in which, when the disaffected natives from 
the east of the country took refuge among the 



IMPERIAL POLITICS 515 

Langberg hills in the west, no effort was made to 
discriminate between the intruders and the real in- 
habitants of that region — " on the whole a quiet 
and well-conducted people," 

We are told, for instance, that on more than one 
occasion Luka Jantye, the Chief, took great trouble to 
put himself right with our people. It was stated that 
he offered " himself and his allegiance and service, and 
that practically these were distrusted and rejected." 
This Luka was himself killed under circumstances of 
peculiar atrocity. " I decline to write the details," 
Mackenzie says of the sanguinary story. " Thank 
God, there cannot be many people who would or 
could do such things, except as a duty." 

Then he deals with the confiscation of lands, a pro- 
ceeding which in a new country almost invariably 
implies some measure of underhand work. Mackenzie 
stigmatises the motives which led to this procedure 
with considerable vigour. The indenture of the 
starving Bechuanas to Colonial families for five years 
is likewise described in appropriate terms. Finally 
on this subject he says : — 

I do not press this matter further and inquire who 
personally was to blame for it — incompetence or worse, is 
written on the whole transaction. At whose special door 
this charge lies I care not to enquire. My strictures are not 
written from the point of view of a political opponent to the 
present Colonial Government. 

This leads him, in two concluding paragraphs, to 
describe, and once more to condemn the annexation 
of Bechuanaland to the Cape Colony. He sees in all 
the steps which led up to it the hand of the Chartered 
Company, and the ambition of " this big amalgamating 
power to be supreme in the whole of South Africa." 



CHAPTER XX 

AFRICA PREACHER AND COUNSELLOR 

(189I-1898) 

When Mackenzie landed at Cape Town in 1 891, he 
found himself in the midst of the annual meetings of 
the Congregational Union of South Africa. He 
received a very warm welcome, and from that day- 
was one of the most earnest and sympathetic members 
of the Union. He attended its meetings every year, 
except one, until the end of his life. He was placed 
on many of its most important committees, and in 
connection with them did the same faithful and patient 
work which he gave to every undertaking. He was 
appointed to a large number of special committees 
which had the disagreeable task of investigating cases 
of difficulty, such as settling church quarrels, preventing 
litigation over church property, etc. The testimony 
is uniform and unanimous that his work on these 
occasions, which for obvious reasons cannot be more 
minutely described, was of the utmost value. 

In an obituary notice which appeared in a Year-book 
of the Congregational Union after his death, it is said : 

As a spiritual adviser he was at his best. With what 
wonderful patience he would listen to native disputes, and 
sift out all their tiresome details, until the whole case was 
clear to him, and then with what a wealth of sanctified 
common-sense, diffusive charity, and persuasive wisdom he 
would express and apply his judgment ! 

On the same feature of his work and the spirit in 

which he performed it, Mr Beard in his memorandum 

has written as follows : — 
516 



PREACHER AND COUNSELLOR 517 

It was in dealing with elements like these in the small 
South African Congregational Union that some of the finest 
qualities of John Mackenzie were displayed, winning the 
respect and afifection of his co-workers. It may have seemed 
to others a small sphere for one who had been occupying the 
position of the previous years ; perhaps at times, it may have 
seemed so to himself. But there was no sign of it in the 
readiness with which he threw himself into every subject, and 
the interest he manifested in every question bearing upon the 
welfare of the churches and the promotion of their work. 

On one occasion, when a large " Coloured Church " had 
been seriously divided, and feeling had run high between 
certain ministers and their adherents, Mr Mackenzie was sent 
on a deputation to visit it. In a private letter giving a full 
explanation of the faithful way in which the deputation had 
dealt with the various individuals, Mr Mackenzie wrote as 
follows : — 

" As to the people I have not time to write details. But on 
the last Sunday evening, before a very large congregation, I 
indulged in some very plain speaking, tempered by the 
heavenly teaching of our Lord, as to forgiveness, washing 
His disciples' feet, etc., and towards the close asked all those 
who desired to agree with our decision and to cherish those 
Christian feelings to stand up, while I engaged in a short 
special prayer. Practically the whole congregation stood up : 
and there was great joy expressed at the close of the meeting. 
The quarrel is over." 

Those who knew Mr Mackenzie and his calm and dignified 
yet earnest manner of address, can well picture the impressive 
scene on that Sunday evening, in that large congregation of 
impulsive, eager, and unlettered African Christians. 

In the year 1893 he acted as Chairman of the 
Union, and delivered the annual address on September 
25th, at Queenstovi^n. He took as his subject, "The 
Christian Outlook in the Cape Colony," and his 
address, v^hich fills twenty-two pages of the Year- 
book of the Congregation Union, covers a great deal 
of ground. 

He began with the Congregational view of the 
Christian church. While explaining its relation to, 
as well as its difference from, other sections of 



5i8 JOHN MACKENZIE 

Christendom, he especially emphasised the gradual 
approximation to one another, in their practical 
methods, of Presbyterian and Congregational churches 
in South Africa ; and with great delight he pointed 
to the co-operation of these two denominations in the 
past. He insisted that the methods of church 
government must " be capable of adaptation to the 
diversified and changing conditions of mankind in all 
parts of the country." 

Having thus laid down his religious and spiritual 
principles, he went on to apply them to the concrete 
circumstances in South Africa. He reviewed the 
internal work of the churches, and the need of the 
highest morality and the intensest spirituality. 

Some of our pastois and office-bearers may stop from 
fighting with " wild beasts," so to speak, the strong lower 
passions of their flocks ; the disgusting customs of a 
heathenism still clinging to the minds of the people. Be 
encouraged, brethren, in your most difficult but most 
necessary work. Whatever you do, do not lower the 
standard of what Christ requires. . . . Christian brethren, 
the most hopeful thought to my mind in connection with the 
future of the country is this — that wherever a Christian 
church exists, we have an agency for making and keeping 
men and women pure, truthful, honest, and godly. 

The condition of colonisation was briefly discussed, 
and a large space was devoted to the problem of 
strong drink in South Africa, especially in Cape 
Colony. 

Our appeal to our fellow-Christians throughout the 
Colony, and our own efforts as a Union must first be 
directed to the reduction of the number of licensed places in 
our villages, and to the withdrawal of all canteen licences 
throughout the Colony. The government of the Free State 
has excelled the government of this Colony in the matter of 
restriction placed upon the sale of strong drink. 

Under the heading of " The Question of Colour," 
Mackenzie placed great emphasis upon the fact that 



PREACHER AND COUNSELLOR 519 

in the Congregational Union men of different races 
met on an equality and with great freedom. 

It is a thrilling and soul uplifting thought, the confluence 
of the older Christian communions with the newly opened 
up rill of South African Christianity. . . . We are of many 
races and classes, but if we have put off the old man and 
have put on the new, then among us there is neither Greek 
nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, 
bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all. . . . Whether 
in religion or in politics, the man who proposes to assemble 
and organize his own race or his own colour only, has 
practically forsaken the region of argument and discussion, 
and trusts to his power to coerce his opponents by the 
mere weight of number, and in the end by mere brute 
force. . . . Let no one ever seek to organize the members 
of this Union on race lines. Let us avoid it as we would 
a bitter sin. 

Then he discussed also at considerable length " The 
Location Act and Stock Stealing," where he dealt 
with one of the most constant causes of dispeace and 
disorder in many districts of Cape Colony. He 
condemned all proceedings by the government which 
would deal with the natives en masse^ as if they were 
all given to stock-thieving. He urged missionaries 
who laboured in such districts to give constant and 
broad-minded teaching to the native people regarding 
this crime. He denied the common assertion that 
it was part of their nature to steal, and in doing so, 
cited the history of the border raids in the south of 
Scotland, in which his own ancestors, no doubt, were 
concerned. 

Of course it was long ago — so long ago that we do not 
feel much disgraced by the fact. Indeed, with us romance 
and poetry have thrown their glamour over these old- 
world doings ; but there is no doubt that when the lady 
of the house on the border line between England and 
Scotland placed on an empty covered dish, to be opened 
by her lord before his family, a significant pair of spurs — 
it was in our estimation as colonists, an unblushing incentive 



520 JOHN MACKENZIE 

to stock-lifting. Her ladyship's larder was empty, and the 
border had to be crossed to obtain supplies. 

He would therefore have the colonists regard 
stock-thieving as at once a relic of barbarism, destined 
to pass away, and a crime which must be stamped 
out by firm, but discriminating justice. 

Then he discussed, under a number of brief para- 
graphs, misunderstandings which were likely to rise 
among them as Christian men of different races in 
a new country. He noted that the utmost confusion 
prevailed amongst those who discussed what they 
called " The Native Question." Within the church 
he would expect mutual sympathy and help amongst 
all true believers of every race. 

But with reference to what I may call general society, 
what are my social rights? Simply to be let alone. I 
have no social right which society declines to give to me. 
If people do not want my society they find no difiiculty 
in letting me know it. Have they wronged me by so 
doing? By no means. Let me go among those who are 
more likely to care for me. Society sanctions the inter- 
course of those who approve of one another. 

Towards the end the following sentences occur : — 

Does it not appear from what I have said that there is 
hope in the future before us all in our South African life, 
without expecting anything unreasonable from one another ? 
The church door is open ; the court room is open ; the 
doors of our friends' houses are open ; and there is fair 
pay for fair work. Let us thank God, and live our life, 
and do our work, with joy and gladness, with earnestness 
and deep humility. No one can think worse of us than 
we do of ourselves when we are alone with our Saviour. 

His last words in this Chairman's address were : — 

God grant that this Union may long show how all races 
of South Africa may live together and work together for 
God and their fellow men. 

Mackenzie's last attendance at the Union meetings 
took place when they gathered in September 1898, 



PREACHER AND COUNSELLOR 521 

at Uitenhage. His brethren all remarked the evident 
decline of physical strength which they saw in him, 
while yet he took a full part in the work and de- 
liberations of the Assembly. On a Friday after- 
noon, September 23rd, Mackenzie introduced the 
subject of " Church work and progress." Several of 
those who heard this address have referred to it in 
correspondence since that day, and all bear witness 
that he spoke with such intensity and earnestness 
as to produce an unusual impression upon his 
audience. So remarkable indeed was the emotion 
which his bearing and his message quickened, that 
the Assembly agreed at once to cease from further 
discussion of the subject, and spend the remainder 
of the time in prayer. 

He made a half-playful address on another occasion, 
of a social character, in response to the toast, " New 
men and old days," in which again he seems to 
have touched a tender chord, mingling what was 
playful with what was pathetic in the few sentences 
which he uttered. 

At the communion service, where Christians of 
different denominations and races met, he spoke on 
the 2 1 st chapter of John, urging the communicants 
to control the impulsive, active Peter within their 
hearts, and to give precedence to the loving, intuitive 
John. "We felt," it is added by one friend, "that 
he was simply rendering the order of his own ex- 
perience, and that in him Peter, the leader of men, 
had learned to acknowledge the greater nearness to 
Christ of John, the divine." This correspondent, the 
Rev. J. Frederick Philip, after quoting a few lines 
from Matthew Arnold's " Rugby Chapel," says that 
there are many passages in that poem " which might 
have been written not only for the children of John 
Mackenzie, but for us, who look to him as a spiritual 
father." 



522 JOHN MACKENZIE 



n 



While Mackenzie was thus deeply involved in 
industrial and social and denominational schemes he 
was, it must be remembered, hard at work as pastor 
and preacher. His command of the Dutch language 
became more and more extensive, so as to receive 
the praise even of those who heard him in large 
Dutch-speaking churches at other places. 

Mackenzie spared no labour upon his work as a 
preacher ; his files of manuscript sermons, which he 
kept in the same methodical way in which he pre- 
served all of his manuscripts and correspondence, show 
that he spent much time and thought upon them. 
They are in the main, of course, simple, earnest dis- 
courses adapted to the needs of a rural population. 
Many of them are written out in full, covering ten to 
thirty pages of manuscript ; others are preserved only 
in brief jottings. The course of thought in the 
majority of his sermons shows that he was in deep 
earnest about the central features of man's religious 
and moral life. To him it was clear that a man's 
relations to God are supreme and fundamental, and 
on these he spoke with intense solemnity. But for 
him, as for all true teachers of the Gospel, the 
religious life must find expression in a man's human 
relationships, in human conduct ; the eternal appears 
under the conditions of time and amid the changes 
of a finite experience. Mackenzie's sermons were 
therefore directed no less to the practical problems | 
of everyday life than to the deep questions of our 
relation to the living God through Jesus Christ. 
Under this head he placed the consideration of the 
larger national and political questions. He did not 
shrink from discussing these. He could not speak, 
for instance, on the text " Love your enemies " with- 
out applying it skilfully, but with great boldness, to 
the attitude of the various races in South Africa 
towards one another. Nor could he preach as he 



I 



PREACHER AND COUNSELLOR 523 

did at various places on the passage (Matt. xx. 
20-29) where two brothers appeal to Christ for 
positions of prominence in His Kingdom, without 
coming to consider the principles of human govern- 
ment, and the manner in which the spirit of the 
Son of Man is to be realised in the political world. 
Nor could he deal again with the parable of the 
fig-tree, without pointing out its lessons for the 
national conscience as well as the solemn and urgent 
appeals which could be obviously based upon it in 
addressing the will of individual men. It seems 
fitting to give here two or three brief extracts from 
some of these sermons to illustrate his spirit and 
manner. 

The first one is taken from the sermon on Matt, 
v. 43-45, entitled "Love your enemies." When he 
preached this at Caledon Square Church, Cape Town, 
on April i8th, 1897, ^^ added the following passage, 
which was written and delivered because he found 
the atmosphere of Cape Colony growing thick with 
suspicion, recrimination, and all the conditions that 
make for war : — 

Brethren ! So far I have addressed to you remarks which 
I recently made to a small European congregation in a 
secluded church in this colony. 

Speaking here from this pulpit to-night, I wish to add a 
few remarks on the subject of our text. 

I am addressing many who are the humble followers of 
Jesus Christ : men and women who call Him sincerely Lord 
and Master. Allow me to say to you this evening, with deep 
conviction, that the peace and prosperity of this country are 
in your hands. Who is the enemy of South Africa? The 
man who tries to separate Christian people on account of 
their race or descent. Brethren ! these men are our 
enemies. We say earnestly, Whom God in His providence 
hath joined together in this land, let no man, and no 
party, and no newspaper, try to put asunder ! Christian 
people ! (I would my voice could resound through the 
whole of South Africa) — be not silent at this juncture. 



524 JOHN MACKENZIE 

That whole matter is really in your hands. Look not on 
your own things but also on the things of others. Through 
you let the Spirit of Christ kill the spirit of hatred and 
selfishness, which leads to war through all the land. English- 
speaking people ! be Christians first ; loyal, true servants of 
Jesus. Dutch-speaking people ! brothers in faith and hope ! 
fellow-workers in bringing about the establishment of the 
glorious Kingdom of our common Lord ! be Christians 
first : loyal and true servants of Jesus. Christians ! unfold 
fearlessly the Banner of Christ our Lord. Let us all 
assemble under its ample folds. Demand it of all the 
rulers and governments in South Africa that the wild-beast 
age of mankind in this fair land shall pass away, and that 
the real and practical reign of Christ Jesus shall be estab- 
lished in our midst. 

Brethren, shall we kneel and offer the same prayers — 
shall we approach the same sacred communion and openly 
declare our deep love and true devotion to one Saviour and 
Master, and then go out and speak words of malice and 
hatred against one another, and urge on one another by 
bitter words to hotter anger and vengeance? I say, Let 
not this be ! May God Himself forbid ! 

I call upon the Christians of South Africa in this time 
of need, by the humble exercise of a true Christian spirit 
in their daily life — Receive one another, bear with one 
another, have sympathy with one another, as the good 
Lord has so lovingly and patiently borne with you. 

Blessed are the peacemakers here in South Africa as 
everywhere, for they shall be called the children of God. 



The Parable of the Fig-Tree 
(Luke xiii. 6-10) 

Dear brethren, we have spoken from illustrations in the 
history of the past, which show that there comes a time of 
judgment even in the dealings of the God of mercy. The 
Babylonish captivity, and the destruction of Jerusalem, and 
the scattering of the Jewish people are striking illustrations 
of this truth. 

But what was true in the time of Isaiah and in the time 
of our Lord is equally true in our own day. 



^1 



PREACHER AND COUNSELLOR 525 

I am persuaded that the doctrine of our text is true of 
the nations of to-day, as well as of God's ancient people. 
It is at present high-tide, so to speak, as to the prosperity 
of the British Empire. Those whose ancestors were rude 
barbarians when the words of our text were spoken by Christ 
have risen to an unprecedented height among the nations of 
the earth. But should our people fall away from righteous- 
ness, should they become self-seeking and self-indulgent, 
should God be forgotten or dethroned, in our aims and 
our plans as a people, then, without doubt, the word will 
go forth, " I have sought fruit on this tree and find none : 
I have sought spiritual life, and find only coarse materialism : 
I have sought humble faith and obedience to Him whose 
power has raised them so high, and I find only self-laudation, 
contained in empty and boastful affirmations about western 
civilisation : I have sought a nation to serve Me in My 
Gospel, a nation to carry the evangel to the ends of the 
earth, but where I have found fleets of war-vessels and fleets 
to carry merchandise, I see only one or two vessels made 
to carry My evangelists : I have sought a people to exemplify 
the teaching of My Son in their social and national life, and 
behold, I find a people given to revelling and drunkenness 
and immorality, among whom the greatest moral guilt goes 
unpunished, because it has become sanctioned by long 
practice and usage. Brethren, it is not our western civiliza- 
tion that will save us as a people, any more than Greece 
or Rome was saved by civilization. We stand not in the 
forefront of the nations to-day through our army or our 
navy or our modern weapons of warfare. We stand where 
we do through our character as a Christian nation — a people 
on whom evidently the blessing of God has long rested. 
Thank God for the Christianity which still animates the 
British people. Thank God for what measure of sound 
character, true faith, and sincere devotion, are to be found 
among our people. Should these be found among our own 
people, should these grow and abound, then the blessing 
of Heaven will continue to rest on us as a nation. But 
should the great Gardener seek this heavenly fruit among 
us, and seek it in vain, then no weapons of defence can 
save us, for we shall ourselves have decayed and become 
eflete; and the word shall go forth, "Why cumbereth it 
the ground? Cut it down." Therefore he is the truest 
patriot who seeks to raise the character of his people; 



526 



JOHN MACKENZIE 



for the true greatness of a nation — that which will give 
permanence to a people — consists in the virtue and purity, 
the honesty and truthfulness, and the spiritual ideals of the 
great body of the people. 

But once more, our text carries a message not only to 
nations, but to individuals. We are individually represented 
by this fig-tree. The Divine voice is heard saying, " I have 
come for so long seeking fruit in this life, and find none. 
Why cumbereth it the ground ? Why suffer it longer to cast 
around it a baleful, selfish, worldly influence ? Cut it down ! " 

But, brethren, we have an Advocate at God's right hand, 
who intercedes for us. We have also a Divine Spirit stand- 
ing at the door of our hearts and knocking for admission. 
"Let him alone, while I still knock at his heart and beg 
him to yield himself to My guidance, while I win him by 
love and patience, while I warn him by fearful lessons in 
events around him. Let him alone a year longer that he 
may bear the fruit of repentance, humble faith, and Christian 
life; and then if that fruit is not apparent, thou shalt cut 
him down." 

How solemn, brethren, that while we are living in thought- 
lessness — taking the days as they come — the eye of our God 
is examining our life and our character, seeking heavenly fruit, 
unmistakable tokens in our character and life that we are 
the children of God through faith in Jesus Christ ! How 
solemn that in the Council of the Godhead it should be said 
by the Voice of Righteousness — For years have I sought 
fruit here and find none : why cumbers he the earth longer ? 
And the same Divine Voice in another tone, the tone of 
Mercy replies. Spare him a little longer : he will see My 
Cross : he will realize My love for him. And again another 
note of mercy, Spare him a little longer : if he will only 
willingly admit Me and yield to Me, his scarlet guilt shall 
become white as snow: I will create within him a clean, 
heart and renew a right spirit within him. 

Brethren, listen to the Heavenly Voices speaking round us 
and about us. Where is the Heavenly fruit in our lives? 
If we are only willing and believing. Divine aid will do the 
rest. Thank God that there is this Divine Mercy. But 
remember ! our text this afternoon points to a life tragedy : 
to the fatal time when a deaf ear and a closed heart shall 
have brought doom on themselves. "If it bear fruit, well : 
if not, after that then thou shalt cut it down." 



PREACHER AND COUNSELLOR 527 

The following selection will be found very interest- 
ing, because it contains several echoes across the years 
from those early "jottings," of which examples have 
been printed above. It seems also to express sincerely, 
and even bluntly, the principles on which Mackenzie had 
very earnestly endeavoured to live, and which inspired 
him for every change of work, for every ardour of self- 
sacrifice : — 



Human Ambition and Christian Distinction 
(Matt. XX. 20-29) 



HI. Christian Distinction. — Our Lord pursued the subject 
thrust upon His notice to its legitimate end. James and John 
would be " great " ; they would be " first " in His Kingdom. 
They were willing, as far as they knew, to share with Him the 
fortunes of that Kingdom. It therefore became their Guide 
and Teacher, for their benefit, and to the benefit of the rest 
of His disciples, as well as for the edifying of His Church in 
all ages, to explain what was Christian Distinction, and how 
it could be attained. 

Yet once more, therefore, the true Messiah announces that 
His Kingdom shall be the antithesis of the kingdoms of the 
earth. He describes what has been common to kings' courts 
and to the courts of First Consuls or of Presidents — the eager 
pursuing of personal claims ; the partizanships ; the elbowing 
others out of your way ; the walking roughshod over a man 
who is down, leaving to those who are called fools the work 
of raising him up and setting him on his feet again. These 
things have been, and alas, still are ; and they will be, till 
Christianity shall have filled men's hearts, and then the 
antithesis of our Lord's lesson will have ceased. The king- 
doms of the world shall have become the kingdoms of God 
and of His Christ. 

But if not by self-reliantly pressing their individual claims 
and pushing others out of the way, how is distinction to be 
achieved in the new Kingdom of the Messiah ? Is everything 
on a dull, monotonous level, or is there a real province for 
emulation and ambition among the servants of Christ ; and 



528 JOHN MACKENZIE 



if so, what is that province ? And what are the rules which 
apply to Christian ambition ? 

The love of distinction, the desire to emulate, is not by 
any means crushed by the religion of Christ. Rather is it 
directly encouraged and guided, as witness the directions given 
in our text. They might aspire to be "chief"; they might 
covet to be " first " in rank ; and their Master graciously gives 
them plain directions as to how this is to be secured. 

The Patriarch is Head of the Eastern Church, the Holy 
Father or Pope is Head of the Western. The Primate of 
England is Head of the Episcopal Church of that country, and 
so in Scotland and Ireland. The Moderator of a Presbyterian 
Church is its Head for the time. So among the Wesleyans 
is the President of the Conference for the time being. So 
among the Congregationalists and Baptists, the Chairman of 
the Union for the year. If you look at any book of reference 
you will find that these are the acknowledged Heads of 
Churches ; and these books will tell you how to address 
these dignitaries, so as to express that conventional reverence 
for their office, which in the beginning must have been 
evoked and must have been earned by the holders of these 
offices. If I look at my book of reference then I can have 
no doubt as to who is the chief or head in these Christian 
communities. But if I turn to my New Testament and take 
this text for my guide, these dignitaries may or may not retain 
a chief place in Christ's Church. If they do, it will be as 
workers, and not for any other reason. The text is clear. 
" It shall not be so among you. Whosoever would be great 
among you shall be your servant, and whosoever would be 
first among you shall be your bond servant or slave ; even as 
the Son of Man came not to be ministered, but to minister." 

Here, then, we have pointed out to us the true scope for 
Christian ambition, with specific directions as to the manner 
in which it can be followed successfully. As we might have 
expected, true greatness in Christ's service is within the reach 
of all His followers, within the reach of the poor as well as 
of the rich. To be a Christian at all, means that you are 
striving to please God in your daily life; that you are 
enthusiastically loyal to Christ your Lord and Master; that 
you avail yourself of the help of God's good Spirit so freely 
offered to us all ; that you consecrate life, social position, 
education, yourself, in short — all that you have and are, to 
Christ your Lord, placing yourself on His altar as a living 



m 



PREACHER AND COUNSELLOR 529 

sacrific«, which is a most reasonable thing for each and all 
to do. To go a step further than this, and to seek Christian 
distinction^ is to excel in the eye of Christ, to surpass others 
in working, in serving, in slaving for Christ. The eye of the 
Lord passes by the men who in His Church forget this 
lesson, although they may be esteemed great among men, 
as Samuel allowed to pass by one after another of the likely 
sons of Jesse. The eye of the Master passes by one after 
the other till it rests on the humblest, most self-forgetful, 
most diligent Christian. He' is the chief, he is the first in 
rank, in the eye of our Lord. 

And his place and his reward are assured; no one can 
dispossess him of them. Here surely is strong consolation to 
every Christian heart sincerely seeking the Master's approval. 
This choice joy, this crown of human life, is placed within the 
reach of all. And no one can defraud the most distinguished 
in the Master's eye of his merited reward. It is his, and it 
shall be given to him by the Master Himself. Take heart, 
therefore. Christian soldier, your Captain's eye is never off 
you \ He knows your every step. Have they elbowed you 
aside because you are old or ill ? Have they brushed past 
you, and all but trodden you down in their hasteful, selfish 
rush? Heed it not. One eye is ever on you. You can 
always come into contact with the Master Himself, whom 
you love and serve. 

But remember and please to be quite clear about this; 
that true Christian distinction is to be earned by work only. 
You can't meditate yourself into this chief place; nor can 
you get it by mere asking. It will not be bestowed on the 
man whose highest Christian effort is to keep a diary, in 
which he narrates what it occurs to him to put down at the 
end of the day. It is sweet and helpful to meditate ; it is 
good — especially at certain times — to keep jottings of your 
thoughts and your experiences ; but neither your diary nor 
your meditations will secure for you a chief place in the eye 
of the Master. If you would excel you must do it by work- 
ing for Christ ; you must be like Him who was not ministered 
to, but who ministered constantly to others, giving them even 
His very life. 

Here, then, brethren, a glorious prospect opens before you. 
You have seen the platform of social or human ambition, on 
which the Saviour does not frown, but only declares it to 
be inadequate. We have attempted to describe the higher 

2 L 



530 JOHN MACKENZIE 

Christian platform of life and action, conjoining the present 
with the future, time and eternity, the light of Christ's char- 
acter and teaching lighting up our view of things. From that 
high platform of Christian devotion we come to answer the 
further and still higher question, as to distinction in the 
service of Christ; and we have heard the wonderful and 
sublime answer of Christ. Distinction can be earned by 
work done for Christ, even by the cup of cold water, if you 
can do nothing else. Distinction can be earned by work 
only, and once earned, no one whatever can defraud you of 
your reward. The surprised disciple may exclaim. Lord, when 
saw we Thee hungry and gave Thee food? But He will 
answer as He did. 

Brethren, I know that your heart burns within you with 
the generous glow of a self-forgetful Christian devotion. 
You would work for Christ ; you would serve Him ; you 
would willingly slave for Him. And you are ready to ask 
me, What are we to do? Does your mind hasten towards 
some strange scene, some distant clime, as if there you would 
serve your Lord and earn His approval ? 

It may not be necessary for you to leave the scene of your 
present pursuits ; it may be necessary only to let in on your 
daily habits and thoughts the higher teaching of this morn- 
ing's lesson. Thus a new spirit can elevate your present 
daily life. The work done can be done for Christ. What 
are you to do ? A friend can advise, a pastor can teach and 
guide, but Christ Himself can inspire. How can I know 
what you can do for Christ? How can I measure your 
service to Him ? That may not be dictated by me. That 
may not be set you as a task by any man. That is a ques- 
tion which your love and devotion to Him alone can answer. 
How your life-service shall be rendered can be settled only 
on your knees, can be decided only in sight of the Cross 
and in view of Eternity. What I say is this. When on your 
knees, when in view of that Cross, and of the vast cycles of 
our eternity, f^en be ambitious^ then consider how to secure 
Christian distinction. You know now how to obtain it. Let 
us serve for it; let us slave for it. The laurels of mere 
temporal ambition do always wither; but the crown which 
shall reward your Christian ambition shall adorn your brow 
for ever and ever. 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE RIPENED LIFE AND THE SICKLE 
(1898, 1899) 

We have already seen that Mackenzie's friends noted 
during the years 1897 and 1898 a remarkable 
mellowing of his character. It is now our duty, as 
we approach the end of his life's story, to speak 
more definitely on that topic. It may not be too 
much to say that the entire course of his words and 
work from the time of his youthful jottings to his 
last labours in Hankey have shown that Mackenzie's 
nature united certain apparently inconsistent qualities. 
He was a man of great strength of will with a 
capacity for what we must call *' driving through " duties 
and difficulties ; but with this there was united an 
abundant emotionalism which made him full of 
sympathy for the position and feelings of others. 
His vigour was therefore united with tenderness, his 
fearless judgment was only tamed, and yet was 
actually controlled, by those deep springs of affection 
within him. The preceding chapters have already 
shown how wide were his practical interests as he 
looked out upon the problems of the human world 
around him. From the beginning to the end he had 
within him the passion of the evangelist ; at no time 
would he confess that he subordinated his desire for 
bringing men to God to any other conception of duty. 
It was in the interests of this task that he was drawn 
into political life, and from political labours he returned 
at the end to this. And yet, he was able at no 
period of his life to give himself solely to evangelistic 

531 



532 JOHN MACKENZIE 

efforts. He had a sincere and earnest interest in all 
sides of the life and work of every community he 
touched. Whether at Shoshong or Kuruman or 
Hankey he ever had his eye upon pastoral as well 
as evangelistic duties, upon educational as well as 
pastoral, upon industrial as well as educational, upon 
political as well as industrial. With Mackenzie to 
think was to act. He was not one of those who 
could see something that ought to be done and leave 
others to discover it ; what ought to be done he must 
try to get done as soon and as well as circumstances 
and his own powers of persuasion and work could do it. 
As we have seen, the period of life which he spent 
at Hankey embraced all these separate interests, and 
none was wholly neglected by him. That, however, 
which appeared most clearly to all observers was not 
so much the measure of success which he attained, 
as the development of his own spirit. He quite 
evidently impressed all who came in contact with 
him, as a man who lived for the sole purpose of 
doing good ; his self-sacrificing labours in all direc- 
tions were aimed at nothing less than conveying 
some definite boon to some individual or class. And 
this benevolence of spirit was recognised as being 
based upon his religious consciousness ; he was no 
philanthropist of the shallower type, doing the best 
for men out of mere pity for their temporary or 
physical disabilities ; he viewed them and all their 
burdens of disease and sorrow, of ignorance and strife, 
in the light of the eternal, and he strove to deliver 
them from these because he walked with God. There 
ran ever through his life the continuous reference of 
all things and all duties to the name and will of God. 
This did not appear, indeed, in set phrases, for no man 
could be so religious and yet employ so little of the 
conventional verbiage of religion as he. But men 
knew that his religion, his dependence in all and 



THE RIPENED LIFE AND THE SICKLE 533 

through all upon God his Father and Saviour, was 
for Mackenzie the deepest and the highest fact in his 
life, and the root of all that he did and hoped to be. 
The powers of the world to come had truly entered 
into his experience in those far-off years of youth, and 
through all the intervening decades the grasp upon 
his nature had become more firm, subduing the entire 
manhood to their sway. 

Before we come to tell the story of his last illness, 
it may be well to illustrate as briefly and simply as 
possible the truth of this estimate of Mackenzie's 
ripened Christian spirit. 

There is no direction in which a man is more 
severely tested than in his attitude towards opponents 
in public life. The command of Jesus that men should 
love their enemies is not easy to obey ; still less 
that which he seems to have described as the supreme 
manifestation of such love, namely, sincere prayer for 
those that are deliberately and malignantly hostile. 
Here was one of those features in Mackenzie's conduct 
which most impressed those who watched him in his 
public work. The following paragraphs by Mr Henry 
Beard of Cape Town, a most careful and affectionate 
observer, will confirm these words : 

A marked feature in the succeeding years was the fair 
and generous way in which he spoke of such political 
opponents. This may be exemplified from the pages of 
" Austral Africa," but it was still more significant to notice 
the same in private conversation and correspondence. The 
tendency of political life everywhere, but especially in a 
Colony, is to see in all self-interested motives and to dwell 
on the personal aspect. This was a man who was too large- 
minded to yield to such a tendency. Habitually seeking 
not his own, he thought on a higher plane, and could not 
condescend to personal resentment where momentous in- 
terests were in question. But there was a remarkable 
tenacity of purpose, which no opposition or unfavourable 
circumstances could damp. Most men, after defeat such as 



534 JOHN MACKENZIE 

he suffered when he resigned office in Bechuanaland, hope- 
less of turning the tide, would have returned to their former 
work, if, like him, they esteemed it highly. He, apparently 
roused the more by successful opposition, addressed himself 
to the task of turning the official mind and awakening and 
directing the public interest. In this to a certain extent he 
succeeded. 

It was no less striking to see the same man, when he 
found how other questions were crowding out the considera- 
tion of South African problems from the public mind in 
Great Britain, quietly resuming his missionary work, still of 
the same steady mind, watching the course of events, and 
still seeking by occasional articles in English periodicals to 
influence public thought in favour of that comprehensive 
policy, which he deemed so vital to future right relations 
between the Mother country and the two European races 
and the Natives in South Africa ; or, anon, appealing to the 
reasonableness and better feelings of the Dutch whom he 
esteemed, as in his letter to President Kruger of June 1896. 
Manifesting no resentment, the man who, for a while, had 
played so prominent a part in connection with statesmen 
and soldiers and the large affairs of public life, turned back 
again to the simple and obscure duties of the missionary 
life as he found them at the old colonial mission station of 
Hankey. There, the same clear judgment and the mingled 
firmness and kindness which had been applied to subjects 
of national import and government of territories was em- 
ployed, with no less interest and self-devotion, to settle the 
details of village allotments, the landlord's rule and improve- 
ments, the affairs of the mission school, or the irrigation 
scheme. Nor, so far as a friend could detect, was there 
any trace of unworthy disappointment, or discontent, in that 
large mind and heart. At Hankey he showed the same 
qualities of a leader of men as in Bechuanaland. He soon 
gained the regard of the neighbouring farmers, to whom his 
name, at first, must have been synonymous with the opponent 
of their race. 

Nothing brought a keener pain to Mackenzie's 
heart than the suggestion that he felt enmity tovi^ards 
any man. When he read in a newspaper one day 
a reference to " Mackenzie and Rhodes " as great 
public foes, he turned with deep feeling to his wife 



THE RIPENED LIFE AND THE SICKLE 535 

and deplored such assertions, adding words which 
from his lips could not mean anything less than all 
that is most sacred and sincere. He said that there 
was no one beyond his immediate family circle for 
whom he prayed more constantly and more sincerely 
than Mr Rhodes. Whether a man who stands out- 
side of the Christian experience can feel the true 
meaning of this word of Mackenzie's or not, those 
who have entered into that life of prayer as an 
actual weapon and who have tried to use it for 
the blessing of an opponent, can appreciate what 
that utterance implies. That kind of prayer can 
only be preceded by a personal struggle and personal 
victory over self. 

The affectionateness, the sympathy of Mackenzie's 
nature shows itself most clearly in relationships, and 
in the presence of events, which make it hard to 
find and publish illustrations. 

Fortunately one of his daughters, who left her 
home at Hankey for a period of study in Germany, 
under conditions of health which made the separation 
a great trial to herself and her parents, is willing to 
have the following extracts from her father's letters 
printed, simply that he may be better known to 
the readers of these pages. 

Hankey, April '97. 

I think it would be good for you and it would be de- 
lightful for us if you came south any time next week. I 
have no copy of the Contemporary. I don't suppose there 
will be one obtainable in Kimberley. It will be most 
serviceable if Mr Ropes reprints the article in one sheet 
as an Advertiser supplement. See the Spectator. It has a 
swinging review of the article for which I am very thankful. 
Try to see the Speaker also. I have not seen it. Mr 
Percy Bunting of the Contemporary^ writes me that the 
article is attracting great attention at home, and that he 
(Bunting) has offered the (Chartered) Company space in 
the Contemporary for a reply. He expresses an opinion as 



536 JOHN MACKENZIE 



I 



to the probability of this taking place, which it would be 
hazardous to quote ; he might be mistaken. I am delighted 
about the reprint in this country, because my great object 
is to unite all progressive men in this country in the hearty 
recognition of the Imperial Government in Native Territories, 
till these are fit for responsible government. 

Hankey, ^rd Nov. '97. 

You are in good hands. Your Heavenly Father's arms 
are underneath and around you. There has been no day 
that we have not thought about you, ay and prayed about 
you, for the two things with us are really one. . . . The 
post brings us the news of Lord Rosmead's death. I am 
afraid I shall be compelled to refer to what I regard as 
some serious mistakes in his past career as High Com- 
missioner. It makes me sad to think of his decease. We 
were so closely connected in 1883, 84, 85. 

The Governor (Lord Milner) has gone north, saying 
everywhere the same healthy sound things. He bids fair 
to become popular with everybody. 

Hankey, 22nd Dec. '97. 

Perhaps I had better tell you my present circumstances 
that we may be in sympathy while you read. The cart is 
to start early to-morrow morning to bring in John and 
family ^ from Uitenhague. Everybody is writing elsewhere, 
and I am in the old place that you know. . . . May the 
good Lord, whose you are and whom you desire to serve, 
be ever with you all the New Year; wherever you are. 
A special blessing on you, dear, I humbly ask from the 
Lord, our Father. Pray for us too, dear lassie, and so 
bind ourselves to one another by this strongest bond. 

When we discussed your going to Leipzig we concluded 
that it would be the most complete change ; that you had 
commenced with a certain teacher, and that there would be 
few if any distractions from your studies as a student in 
Germany. I don't know how all this will appear to you 
in London. I only recall what you said and felt here ; to 
me it is an open question and must be judged by you 
to the best of your ability. 

I have just written a note to John with greetings to the 
bairns, and to say that there are a few apricots in the garden. 
There is a specially good crop of them this year. Do 



THE RIPENED LIFE AND THE SICKLE 537 

you remember the white gardener who was with ? 



He is now with us. He can't speak English. He has not 
the right number of teeth for clear enunciation. His 
thoughts are of less practical value to us than, perhaps, 
their own merits demand. You have to manage matters 
by direct questions. He is capital for looking after the 
fruit in the garden; and the servant girls got a " wakener " 
also from him, despite his deficiency as to teeth. He may 
be said to have shown what he had of teeth to them. 

Hankey {undated). 

Some of your remarks touch me keenly. You went with 
an object. Go forward and follow it out in God's name, 
and trusting to His strength. As your day so shall your 
strength be. God will be sufficient for you every day. 
There may be no great overplus of strength, but you will 
always be more than conqueror against everything that 
opposes you. Make up your mind to ignore it. God will 
make you able to ignore it. Fill your mind with something 
else, something that will not annoy or worry you, but fill 
you and satisfy you. I hope you follow my meaning. It 
is quite clear to myself: and 1 have trod the road myself. 
So cheer up ! you can do all things through Christ 
strengthening you. Lean on that and fear nothing. — Your 
father. 

Hankey, \st March '98. 

We are all well here, and all full of confidence that you 
are also, and going to be, well — a joy to yourself and 
satisfaction before your God and Father : and a joy to us 
all who belong to you. 

Hankey, i^th April 1898. 

I was so glad that you were feeling so fit and even 
joyous with reference to the work before you and generally 
with reference to your future. 

" That's my brave lassie ! " says one thought. " That's 
my humble trustful daughter in the Lord," says my whole 
soul. I have no fear whatever, my dear, concerning your 
affairs. The good Lord will uphold you and see you 
through every maze and over every difficulty. Live near 
to Him, confide in Him, and He will not disappoint you. 



538 JOHN MACKENZIE 

Hankey {undated). 

... I am reminded of post time, so good-night, dearie, 
over the land and over the ocean in the directest way — 
by way of the throne and the Heart of God our Father. 
A blessing abide on you all the days and every day ! 

Hankey, 25M May 1898. 

That was a delicious letter which you sent to me. I am 
thankful for it. It has been quite a joy to me. It will 
surprise you more and more how very successful we people 
can be in shutting out our beloved Father from the world 
of our hearts and thoughts. How glorious is even a glimpse 
of communion with Him ! For is he not Love, Beauty, Light, 
Mercy, and always our Strength? We can do all things 
through Jesus Christ. May all your days be bright, my 
dear lassie, Divine strength encircling you. . . . They are 
beginning to talk learnedly about the great benefit of a 
journey to Kimberley. Of course Het is going — that is 
long settled. Then your mother would undoubtedly be 
much better of a visit to Kimberley. But it would appear, 
also, according to John, that there are special indications 
that I should perform this tour. I am going to write to 
old Mr Philip of Graaf Reinet. If he can come down and 
take my place here, then we'll a' gang thegither; but if 
he cannot do so, then I shall stay where I am — which is 
not at all a bad place ! 

... So cheer up, dearie, we are hand-clasping across the 
sea. Paper is done. Very much love. 

Hankey, \^thjune^<^%. 

Can you find any means of getting more of human 
companionship — some one to supply Mary's place, as far as 
possible ? Look around you and see. It would be nice 
for you to share rooms with a girl of the right sort. God 
grant that you may find her. ... In the meantime, you 
are plodding away — determined not to be discouraged or 
driven back. Stronger is He who is with you than all 
that can be against you. It is, I am sure, a matter which 
prayer and faith in the nearness of Christ can conquer. 
Trust in Him with all your heart and He will bring you 
through. But nice human intercourse makes your life 
easier. If you can only secure it, do not let the question 



THE RIPENED LIFE AND THE SICKLE 539 

of money keep you apart from good companionship. It 
will be such a help to you in every way. And may God 
bless and guide you, my dear girl. 

. . . To-morrow is going to be a "great occasion" — a 
"pink and white tea." Proceeds for a new harmonium for 
the church. Are you all attention ? Perhaps some one will 
be able to describe it to you. I believe my pink tie is 
prepared. You can easily guess by whose deft fingers. The 
white will be supplied I hope by the shirt part. With love. 

Thornhill, 26th June '98. 

I have been thinking of you and your friends on your 
pedestrian tour. I feel sure you will have enjoyed it very 
much. And I trust it will do you very much good. I am 
very much pleased to hear that you are purposing to have 
Miss M. to share your rooms. It will render you much 
happier to be in companionship. I came in here yesterday 
afternoon. Conducted services last night in Dutch ; church 
full. To-night public meeting ; to-morrow go into " the Bay." 
There was some talk about our going north also ; but I do 
not see my way at this time. Very, very much love, my 
dearie. Rest in the Lord ; He will bring it to pass. 

Hankey {imdated). 

Jeanie and I came back last night from Humansdorp. We 
were there one' night. Jee at the Bakers', and I at the 
Magistrate's, in their new house. The occasion was the 
opening of the new Public School, which has been named 
the Milner Institute. The "function" was on Monday at 
1 1 o'clock. There was a great turn out of Beauty and 
Fashion : you can take your choice as to under which head 
you will put Jee and myself. . . . 

Hankey, Cape Colony, 
i^th Oct. 1898. 

Do you know where I am sitting this evening ? Well, I'll 
tell you. I am sitting, as it might be, at the foot of the bed 
in the end room, next the — hm — the henhouse ! I am 
sitting in the corner nearly opposite the window of the old 
bedroom, which is now a glass door frorp the Bay ! So that 
you do not need to go further when you come, if you wish to 
see me, than to stop at the pipe where we water our flowers, 
because my door is there, or very near to it. I am sitting 



540 JOHN MACKENZIE 

looking towards the window which was, of the little study. 
It is now nearly overgrown with ivy outside. But much 
nearer to me as I sit, there is another window driven into the 
wall next to the yard, not far from the end of the oven ! 

... It is very nice to hear of your pegging away at your 
studies, and it is also to be noticed that occasionally and 
lately, there has been some mention made, vague, undated, of 
your return to this fair land. I did not fail to note what was 
said. 

Hankey, ind Nov. 1898. 

I have been longing to write to you for some time ; so 
here goes. Not that I have much to say that is worth 
writing. Only I should just like to send a wee note. I have 
been delighted with your letters lately. 

This is just a word of greeting, a good cheer to you. Do 
not be alarmed at all by what may be written about your 
father. He has not been very well. People can't be always 
quite well. But you can see for yourself that I am all right. 

They have not sent out the assistant whom they promised 
me, but I am aware that it is difficult sometimes to find the 
kind of man wanted. I have no doubt Mr Thompson will 
be doing his best. ... I think I shall hand this on to the 
young people to finish. With love always, your father. 

Hankey, ^oth Nov. 1898. 

Your mother is going to write this letter to you, but I 
thought I would just begin it for her. That is our way of 
doing things, you know — for instance, our way of cooking a 
dinner ; your mother does it, only I look in to see that it is 
all right. So now I am going to bed, and she is to write our 
letter to you, my very dear lassie. 

Towards the end of 1897, Mackenzie's health 
became very unsatisfactory ; a slight twist which he 
gave to one knee resulted in symptoms of a most 
unfavourable kind. But he persisted in work, walking 
up and down the steep hills of Hankey, carrying on 
his business negotiations and his pastoral duties as 
diligently as ever. When Mr Wardlaw Thompson, 
the foreign secretary of the London Society, visited 
Hankey in March 1898, he was struck with the great 



THE RIPENED LIFE AND THE SICKLE 541 

change in Mackenzie's appearance ; his hair had 
whitened rapidly, and his movements gave unmistakable 
signs of weakness. It had been long before felt that 
Mackenzie ought to have an assistant at Hankey, and 
this was urged upon Mr Thompson with great 
emphasis at this time ; his own judgment clearly 
approved of that step, although obstacles arose to 
prevent the Directors from taking it. 

In the month of April following, Mackenzie's mind 
was full of the approaching marriage of his third 
daughter, Elizabeth Douglas, to Mr Edward Sheilds of 
Kimberley. This event, which affected him very 
deeply, took place on the anniversary of his own 
wedding day, April 27th, 1898. He invited his 
friend, the Rev. William Dower of Port Elizabeth, to 
come and assist him. On the evening of the 26th, 
while the house was full of guests and gaiety, he took 
Mr Dower into the garden to arrange with him for the 
service on the morrow. When asked by him to take 
the main part and tie the knot Mr Dower demurred, 
urging that Mackenzie should himself perform that 
sacred duty. But the latter, sitting down on a rustic 
seat, and making his friend sit beside him, held out his 
hand, and, pointing to the swellings on his fingers, 
said, " You know. Dower, that I have had some 
experience with medicine and have become familiar 
with some facts. Now you see these fingers ? I 
know that when that is there it means that there is 
something (pointing to his heart) very seriously wrong 
in here. Accordingly," he continued, " I know that 
I ought not to undertake that part of the service which 
I might be unable to carry through to-morrow, and so 
I will just begin it and you will do the rest." To this, 
of course, there could be no answer, and his sorrowing 
friend braced himself for what was now for him a 
service of peculiar pathos and significance. 

Two or three months later, Mackenzie found him- 



542 JOHN MACKENZIE 

self involved in heavier burdens than ever. Mr 
J. S. Hultzer, who had for years acted as business 
agent for the Society at Hankey, resigned his posi- 
tion, to engage in the publication of a newspaper at 
Humansdorp. While Mr Hultzer agreed to conduct 
necessary official duties from Humansdorp until a 
successor was appointed, his removal nevertheless 
entailed much additional care upon Mackenzie. The 
latter was deeply interested in Mr Hultzer and his 
new project, and he agreed to write an editorial 
article every week for that paper. This usually 
absorbed Mackenzie's time on Wednesday evenings. 
Late on that afternoon the mail arrived from Port 
Elizabeth, bringing him his home and colonial news- 
papers, as well as correspondence ; and he spent long 
hours in studying the political situation before pro- 
ceeding to discuss it in his next article, which he 
wrote the same evening. 

A collapse came on October 22nd, 1898, when 
another " stroke " fell upon him, once more depriving 
him of power over his limbs and for a little while 
even of the power of speech. The latter he quickly 
regained, the former returning more slowly. His 
alarmed household at once telegraphed to his former 
assistant, and dear friend, the Rev. Cullen Reed, now 
a missionary in Matabeleland, who very promptly 
responded, and reached Hankey in the month of 
November. His presence there was an immense 
relief to Mackenzie, as it enabled him to go away 
for change and rest. The demands upon him may 
be illustrated by the fact that only a fortnight after 
his stroke he felt compelled to attend a meeting of 
Hankey tenants and landowners, to plan for the 
irrigation of a piece of land whose crops were 
threatened with destruction ! In December, Mackenzie 
and his wife left for Kimberley, where they stayed 
with their son, Dr J. Eddie Mackenzie. Here he 



THE RIPENED LIFE AND THE SICKLE 543 

received every attention, and was closely watched 
by more than one physician. Some progress was 
made, but many of his friends saw that improvement 
could only be slight and temporary. Letters began 
to pour in from all quarters, expressing sympathy 
with him, and many of these touched him deeply. 
He avoided political discussion as much as possible, 
refraining from reading the newspapers, and giving 
himself up to light literature, short walks, and quiet 
conversation with his family. He could not do more 
than write a few words to his children on other 
continents and in South Africa. The end was 
hastened by a rash deed which came from his 
parental love. His son, Mr J. D. Mackenzie, was 
engaged on an important case before one of the 
judges in Kimberley, and Mackenzie determined to 
go down to the court. He went out towards noon 
of a very hot day, became interested in the case, 
and sat for two or three hours following it closely. 
Then he walked all the way home, missing the 
carriage which his medical son brought to take him 
home. Almost immediately the final stroke fell. 
His strong constitution fought hard for some days, 
but the end came rapidly. He knew what the 
result must be ; yet, with what was no doubt his 
characteristic considerateness for others, he avoided 
all reference to it, meeting his death as he had met 
all the tasks of life, with unflinching courage, indomi- 
table faith, and unwearied sympathy for those around 
him. On the 23rd of March 1899, the toiler fell 
on sleep and rested from his labours. He was buried 
in the cemetery at Kimberley two days later. The 
funeral was largely attended by the citizens of 
Kimberley, of all shades of opinion. 

A memorial service was held in the Scottish Church 
at Kimberley on the Sunday following, March 26th, 
when a careful and generous estimate of Mackenzie's 



k 



544 JOHN MACKENZIE 

life was delivered by the Rev. Henry Richards, the 
minister of the church. 

During those days, telegrams came in large numbers 
from all the Colony and from almost every continent ; 
tributes of admiration for his character and work 
appeared in all the English-speaking newspapers in 
South Africa, and in nearly every daily newspaper 
throughout Great Britain. Many of these obituary 
notices ran to considerable length, and were evidently 
written by men who had watched his career, and had 
formed a high opinion of his services to mankind and 
to the British Empire. Private letters were sent from 
all kinds of people, from Khame and from the High 
Commissioner, from fellow-workers in Church and 
State, from poor parishioners in Hankey, and from 
young men whom he had guided to the best life. 

As soon as was possible many political associations 
and public bodies in South Africa passed resolutions 
concerning Mackenzie's services to the country and 
expressing sympathy with his widow and family. 

For all who were connected in any way with 
Mackenzie, it has seemed a most strange fact that 
within eight months after his death his beloved South 
Africa was plunged into the shame and horror of the 
great war ; truly he was taken from the evil to come. 
About a year before, a friend asked him at Hankey 
whether he thought a war between the British and 
the Transvaal would be likely to occur. He stopped 
suddenly, stamped his stick emphatically upon the 
ground, with a gesture some of his friends remember, 
and said, " That would be an unspeakable disgrace." 
It would be surpassing all the responsibilities of a 
biographer to attempt to form a judgment of what 
Mackenzie would have said about the war if he had 
been alive and full of health and strength. It is safe 
to say that he would have thrown all his energies into 
the task of saving South Africa from such disaster ; 



THE RIPENED LIFE AND THE SICKLE 545 

how he would have attempted it no one may try- 
to estimate. It is sufficient to know that his heart 
would have brooded with an infinite sorrow, not only 
over the evil and indefensible policy of the Republics, 
but over all the blunders in the past relations of 
Great Britain to South Africa which at long last 
made this war appear all but inevitable. In public 
as in private life it is uncourteous to say, " I told 
you so." But it may not be ungracious for a bio- 
grapher to say to those official guides of British 
South African policy who, ten and twenty years 
ago, were leading their country into this disaster, 
" He told you so." And not he alone, be it re- 
membered. Mackenzie's was never a solitary voice, 
even when he spoke on behalf of the true Imperial- 
ism in the development of South African territories. 
He always had the joy and confidence which arose 
from knowing that strong minds agreed with his, 
and that men of wider political experience and 
higher official authority, both in South Africa and 
in Great Britain, believed in the principles which 
he expounded and in the policy for which he so 
passionately pled. 

It is strange to look over Mackenzie's life and 
realise at once the variety of his achievements, and 
the curious fate that has fallen upon much of his 
work on its outward and earthly side. Khame's 
people were led, nearly twenty years ago, away from 
Shoshong to found a new capital at Palapye. Over 
at Shoshong itself the old mission station is abandoned, 
and its many buildings, on which several missionaries 
spent so much labour, have crumbled into ruins. 
Kuruman has fallen from being one of the capitals 
of Bechuana life to the position of a remote and un- 
influential village ; and the educational institutions, 
which Mackenzie hoped to see expanding into great 
centres of influence over all the land, have dwindled 

2 M 



546 JOHN MACKENZIE 

into insignificance. When he engaged in the task 
of saving the interior of South Africa for the British 
Empire, he did work which indeed remains ; but he 
saw the honour and pleasure of realising it, snatched 
from his hands and transferred to those very men 
who had not aided but hindered its inception. When 
he had carried on his long years of toil in London 
and throughout England for the creation of a true 
Imperialism, the awakening of a sense of responsi- 
bility amongst Englishmen and Scotsmen for the 
whole of South Africa, he again saw the ideas which 
he had sown broadcast reaped as a rich harvest by 
those whose spirit was opposed to his own, and whose 
theory of Imperialism he considered untrue and un- 
practical. And, again, when he forsook this wider 
sphere of activity and went to the little corner at 
Hankey, it was to build up new hopes and to lay 
foundations of new schemes ; yet when well within 
sight of realising some of these, he was once more 
removed, his work put into the hands of others and 
the schemes which he planned left for them to fulfil. 

But he would be short-sighted indeed and ignorant 
of the Christian valuation of life and a life's work, 
who would pronounce this varied career anything 
less than nobly successful. There is another side. 
To have moulded the life of a whole tribe directly 
and through its great chief, as Mackenzie moulded 
the Bamangwato ; to have exercised the wide educa- 
tional and spiritual influence over all Bechuanaland 
which he did from Kuruman ; to have been the 
man who first forced Great Britain to face her God- 
given task of controlling the destinies of the entire 
region from the Cape to the Zambesi ; to have 
set forth from platform and pulpit, in magazine 
and volume, in newspaper and blue-book, the true 
principles of British policy in relation to all the 
races of that vast region ; to have gone back and 



THE RIPENED LIFE AND THE SICKLE 547 

done his best for one community, small though it 
was, in Hankey, while yet helping as he did to 
inspire the religious enthusiasm of the members of 
his own denomination throughout the country ; with all 
and through all these great tasks to have maintained 
his own inner life of fellowship with God, unhindered 
unstained ; and finally, under this influence to have 
ripened into a noble, beautiful character whom so 
many loved, and from whom so many lives received 
their purest impulses, their strongest faith — surely this 
deserves to have spoken over all its pages from first 
to last, even from the lips of man, that " kindly judg- 
ment " which he hoped to hear (and hears, we trust) 
from the lips of his Master, " Well done ! " 



APPENDIX I 

WRITINGS OF JOHN MACKENZIE 

I. BOOKS 

1. Ten Years North of the Orange River. A Story of 

Everyday Life and Work among the South African 
Tribes. From 1859 to 1869. Edinburgh: Edmonston 
& Douglas. 187 1. 

2. Day Dawn in Dark Places. London : Cassell & 

Company. 1883. 

3. Austral Africa : Losing it or Ruling it. Being Incidents 

and Experiences in Bechuanaland, Cape Colony, and 
England. 2 volumes. London : Sampson Low, 
Marston, Searle & Rivington. 1887. 

2. PAMPHLETS 

1. London Missionary Society. Statement made by the 

Rev. J. Mackenzie, of Bechuanaland, at a Meeting 
held at Westminster Palace Hotel, July 25, 1882. 
London : Printed by Yates, Alexander, & Shepheard. 
1882. Pp. 8. 

2. Bechuanaland, the Transvaal, and England. A State- 

ment and a Plea. London : Printed by Yates, 
Alexander & Shepheard. 1883. Pp. 14. 

3. The Transvaal and the Bechuanas. Report of Public 

Meeting in Edinburgh. Edinburgh : Printed by 
Lorimer & Gillies. 1884. 

4. The London Missionary Society in South Africa: A 

Retrospective Sketch. London : Published by the 
London Missionary Society. 1888. Pp.21. 

549 



5 so APPENDIX 

5. Austral Africa : Extension of British Influence in Trans- 
Colonial Territories. Proceedings at a Meeting of 
the London Chamber of Commerce. Assembled on 
the 14th May 1888 to hear an Address from 
Mr John Mackenzie. The Right Hon. J. Cham- 
berlain, M.P., in the Chair. London : P. S. King 
& Son. 1888. 

6. Austral Africa : Extension of British Influence in Trans- 

Colonial Territories (with Map). [Reprinted from 
"The Journal of the Manchester Geographical 
Society."] Pp. 31. 

7. Bechuanaland and the Land of Ophir : A Paper read to 

the British Association at Bath in September 1888. 
From the "Proceedings of the Royal Geographical 
Society." November 1888. Pp. 10. 

8. Condition of Bechuanaland. Statement of Facts. 

1882-1890. London: Alexander & Shepheard. 

9. The Christian Outlook in the Cape Colony : Being the 

Chairman's Address to the Congregational Union of 
South Africa. Port Elizabeth: Printed by H. C. 
Gray & Co. 1893. Pp. 22. 

10. The Farmers and the Miners of the South African 
Republic. A Friendly Letter to President Kruger. 
[Reprinted from Cape Times ^ July 20, 1896.] Pp. 6 
(double columns). 

3. MAGAZINE ARTICLES 

Nineteenth Century 
South Africa and England. May 1883. 

Contemporary Review 
England and South Africa. January 1884. 
The Expansion of South Africa. November 1889. 
The Chartered Company in South Africa. March 1897. 
Bechuanaland. February 1898. 

Good Words 
Glances at South Africa. July, August, and September 1898. 



APPENDIX 551 

Imperial Federation 
Imperial Government in South Africa. July 1888. 

Journal of the Society of Arts 
Bechuanaland and Austral Africa. March 1886 

4. NEWSPAPER ARTICLES 

Many Articles appeared either as Editorials or " From a 
Correspondent " in — 

The Diamond Fields Advertiser. 1877 -1882. 

The Scotsman. 1 883-1 890. 

The Leeds Mercury. 1884-1891. 

And less frequently in other periodicals in Great Britain and 
South Africa. 

5. MISSIONARY REPORTS 

Extracts from Letters or special Articles appeared from time 
to time between 1859 and 1898 in — 

The Chronicle of the London Missionary Society. 

6. MEMORANDA AND LETTERS 

Addressed either to the Foreign Office or the Colonial 
Office were printed in the Parliamentary Blue-Books 
between 1878 and 1891. A complete list cannot be 
obtained. It would be lengthy, and would include 
some elaborate communications. 



INDEX 



Africa, 13, 31, 36 

"Afrikander Bond," 281, 287, 313, 

363, 366, 382, 508 (its strong- 
hold) 
Alexander, Rev. Dr Lindsay, 38, 

261 
America, United States of, 295 
Annexation, what is it? 223, 224, 

243, 244, 276 
Arnold Forster, Mr H. O., 401, 

416, 417, 460, 461 
Ashley, Hon. Evelyn, 292, 293, 

306, 385, 401 
Ashton, Rev. William, 46, 185, 187, 

188, 316 
Austral Africa ^ 413-415, 420 

Baboons, strange habits of, 97 

Baden Powell, Sir George, 388, 
406, 408, 424 

Baines, Mr Talbot, 304 

Bamangwato (see also Shoshong and 
Khame), 68, 72, 75, 79-84, 96, 
99, 100, 107- 1 17, 178 

Barkly, Sir Henry, 291, 292, 293, 
294, 418, 419, 424, 425 

Barkly West, 189 

Beard, Mr Henry, 393, 489, 508, 
509, 516, 533 

Beaufort West, 49, 51, 53 

Bechuanaland, 199-202 (disturb- 
ances in), 206, 239 (under British j 
officers), 242, 245, 249 ff". (de- j 
serted), 275, 283, 317-320 (history, | 
1882-1884), 397, 425, 430, 431, 

433, 434, 443» 444, 446, 447, i 
448, 463, 464, 467, 495, 496, j 
497, 510 (Cape Colony at war | 

in), 514, 515 . 

Bechuana People, their progress in 

civilization, 205, 221-223, 229, 

230 ; their wrongs, 205, 206, 228 
Bedford, 20, 21, 36 
Belgium, King of, 439 
Bible, revision of Sechuana, 437, 

457-459, 466 



Bodenstein, Mr, 337 

Boers, two classes of, 270 

Bower, Captain (now Sir) Graham 
R.N., consults with Mackenzie, 
314 ; telegraphs Mr Rhodes 
about Mackenzie, 346, 347 ; a 
suggestion of, 353 ; removes 
British flag from Stellaland, 354 ; 
restores Stellaland flag to Nie- 
kerk, 354; "might have done 
good," 357; instructions modi- 
fied, 359; his political "style," 
366 ; and High Commissioner, 
370 ; would help Mackenzie, 
371 ; and Stellaland petition, 
378, 379 ; becomes personal, 
420 

British Association, 426 

British Empire, 525 

British Government and Sand River 
Convention, 204 ; how forced 
north of Vaal River, 204 ; and 
border tribes, 207 ; and para- 
mountcy of chiefs, 209 ; appealed 
to, 213; duty to Bechuanaland, 
223, 224 ; proposed administra- 
tion by, 229-230 ; responsibility 
for Bechuanaland, 239-241 ; in- 
vited by tribes, 241; "pro- 
visional " acceptance, 242, 249 ; 
a kingdom despised by, 249 ; 
deserts the Bechuanas, 250, 251 ; 
the real question for, 253, 254 ; 
its border policy, 275 ; zigzag 
ways, 275 ; and supremacy, 276 ; 
its gifts to the Transvaal, 286 ; 
and Colonial co-operation, 289, 
299; deserts Bechuanaland, 317; 
embitters Transvaal, 319; op- 
posed by British subjects, 322 ; 
treats offer of territory coolly, 388 ; 
recalls Warren Expedition too 
soon, 389 ; its real question, 399 ; 
and Bechuanaland, 402 ; its 
responsibilities in South Africa, 
411 ; and supremacy, 429 ; and a 

553 



554 



INDEX 



Walvisch Bay railway, 431 ; and 
Germany, 431 ; its opportunities 
in South Africa, 455, 456, 502, 
503 ; and Rhodesia, 501, 503, 
512 

British South Africa Company, 
proposed charter, 432 ; why 
opposed, 434 ; receives charter, 
435, 438 ; discussed, 436 ; aid by 
Mackenzie, 440-442 ; its policy, 
465, 495; native policy, 497, 
498, 500-502 ; its work in Mata- 
beleland, 499-500^ 502, 503; 
"amalgamating power," 515 

Brown, Rev. John, 188 

Buxton, Sir Thomas Fowell, 287, 

291, 294, 304, 389, 401, 426, 
432 

Calderwood, Professor Henry, 

295 

Cape Argus y The, 315, 384, 426 

Cape Colony, 285, 300, 397, 398, 
402, 430 

Cape Times, The, 315, 362, 425, 
508, 509 

Cape Town, 38, 41, 47, 69, 129, 
133, 256, 313, 314, 362, 392, 
480, 523 

Causton, Mr, on the Chartered 
Company and missionaries, 433 

Chamberlain, Mr Joseph, M.P., 
on South African Committee, 
401 ; and proposed Commission, 
405 ; presides at Mackenzie's 
lecture, 422 ; at South African 
Committee Meeting, 431, 432 ; 
letters from Mackenzie to, 443, 
445, 446 ; and Mackenzie's ap- 
plication for appointment, 449, 
450, 451 ; as Colonial Secretary, 
494, 495 ; letter from Mackenzie 
to, 496 ; and the Raid, 498 ; on 
the Bechuanaland War, 511 

Chesson, Mr F. W., 264, 291, 395, 
405, 408 

Claremont, 360 

Clark, Dr G. B., M.P., 284, 285, 

292, 403, 404 
"Colour-Question," The, 23, 518, 

519 
Conder, Captain C. R., R.E., 402 
Confederation of South African 

States, 365, 455, 456, 497, 511, 

512 (its conditions) 
Congregational Union of South 

Africa, 516, 517, 520 



Contemporary Review, The, 290, 

295> 297, 301, 436, 498 - 502, 

514, 535 
Convention (1884), The London, 

298, 304* 360 

Convention (1881), The Pretoria, 

251, 264, 268, 278, 280 
Convention (1852), The Sand River, 

43, 48, 57, 263, 280, 283 
Courtney, Mr L., M.P., 265, 266, 

267 
Cullen, Rev. G. D., 37, 295, 385 
Currie, Sir Donald, 405 

Dale, Dr R. W., 277, 281, 308, 
348, 362, 368, 372, 404, 405 

^^ Day-dawn in Dark Places,'^ by 
John Mackenzie, 279 

De la Ray, A. J. G., 338 

Delegates from the Transvaal 
(1883-4), proposed visit, 280; 
their "history" of Bechuana- 
land, 284 ; and the Lord Mayor, 
284 ; receive four boons, 286 ; 
method of conference with, 288 ; 
length of conference with, ex- 
plained, 297 ; second London 
Convention, 298, 304 

Derby, Earl of, 272, 273, 280, 
281, 285, 288, 289, 292, 293, 297, 

299, 300, 302, 306, 351, 356, 373, 

381, 384 
Douglas, Miss E. B., loi, 130, 215, 

390, 404 
Douglas, Miss Ellen, married to 

John Mackenzie, 38 
Douglas, Rev. John, 34, 75 
Dower, Rev. William, 541 
Dunn, Sir William, 401, 419, 420 

Edinburgh, 21, 295 

Edwards, Mr Samuel, 211 

Elgin, 2, 38, 260 

Elgin Courant, The, 3 

Ellison, Sergeant-Major, 189, 190, 

194 
Enemies, love of, 523 f. 

Fauresmith, 59 

Fife, Duke of, 401, 442 

Fine Arts Society, 402 

Forster, Mr W. E., M.P., 287, 291, 

292, 304, 389, 396, 406, 418 
Fowler, Sir R. N., M.P., 265, 284, 

401, 427 
Frazer, Rev. Mr, 49, 51 
Frere, Sir Bartle, 194, 207, 216, 



INDEX 



555 



217, 227, 231, 233, 242, 250, 
253, 270, 287, 290, 294, 297, 
307 

Frere, Sir Bartle C. , 392 
" Frontier Boers," 285, 286 
Froude, Mr J. A., 402, 403 

GiLMORE, Captain Parker, 166 
Gladstone, Mr W. E., 250, 251 (and 

Pretoria Convention), 251, 258, 

261, 266, 406 
Good Words ^ 514 
Gorst, Sir John E., 405, 406 
Graham stown Journal, The, 422 
Grey, Sir George, 48 
Grey, the late Earl, 287, 401, 460 
Grey, Mr Albert (now Earl), 401, 

433. 435. 442 

Haggard, Mr Rider, 419 

Hall, Rev. Arthur, 23 

Hall, Rev. Newman, 23, 71 

Hankey, 447, 448, 449. 457, 469- 
470 (described), 474-481 (indus- 
trial problems of), 480-481 (and 
railway), 481-483 (and district 
survey), 488, 532 

Hardeland, Rev. Dr, 77 

Helmore, Rev. Holloway, 46, 51. 
53. 55. 56, 64-67 

Hepburn, Rev. J. D., 135, 141, 
153, 154, 155. 167, 168, 177 

Herbert, Sir Robert, 288, 293, 363, 
382, 396, 449, 453 

Hofmeyr, Mr J. H., 287, 357, 365. 

367. 369. 393 

Hope Town, 53, 54, 55 

High Commissionership, The, dis- 
cussed or referred to, 276, 282, 
298, 324, 399, 400, 403, 406, 
408, 417, 424, 425, 427, 428, 438, 

454 
Hultzer, Mr J. S., 471, 473, 476, 

480, 542. 
Hyenas (wolves), stories of, 97-99 

Imperial Federation League, 409, 

421 
Innes, Mr, of Cape Colony, 509 
Jorrissen, Dr, 303 
Joubert, Commandant Piet, 349, 

354 
Jukes, Rev. J., 21, 26 

Khame, conversion, 60, 99 ; fami- 
liar name of, 69 ; and sorcery, 83 ; 
courageous fight of, 84 ; flight 



for safety, 107 ; marriage, 108 ; 
opposes heathen father, 108 ff. ; 
popularity, 109 ; refuses second 
wife, 109 ; attacked by his father, 
112; returns home, 116; his 
moral victory, 118; welcomes 
back Mackenzie, 135 ; his faith- 
fulness, 136 ; persecuted by 
Macheng, 137 ; plot against, 
139; clemency of, 140; unselfish- 
ness of, 141 ; and Mackenzie, 142 ; 
accepted chief, 142 ; breaks with 
heathen ceremonial, 143-145 ; 
fights importation of drink, 145- 
147 ; message to Lobengula, 147, 
148 ; leaves Shoshong to father 
and brother, 151 ; generous con- 
duct, 152 ; returns to Shoshong, 
152; his fight and victory, 153- 
155 ; his Christian spirit, 155 ; 
and migrating Boers, 174 ; fare- 
well to Mackenzie, 178; affection 
for Mackenzie, 387 ; wins respect 
of British officers, 387 ; makes 
Britain splendid offer, 387 ; 
British treatment of his offer, 
388 ; visits England, 494, 496 ; 
message from, on Mackenzie's 
death, 544 
Kimberley, Lord, 258, 270, 272, 

273 

Kimberley (Diamond Fields), 189, 
190, 194, 204, 211, 217, 231, 315, 
321, 323. 391, 392, 430. 431. 538 
543. 544 

Kirby, Captain John, 405, 406, 407, 
408, 417 

Knockando, 119 

Knutsford, Lord, 395, 410, 431, 
432, 441, 442, 449, 452, 453 

Kolobeng (Molepolole), 43, 133, 
181, 187 

Kruger, President, 284, 285, 296 ; 
at Cape Town, 343 ; confers with 
Mr Hofmeyr and Ministers, 343 ; 
prefers Colonies to Imperial 
officers as neighbours, 343 ; co- 
operates for Mackenzie's recall, 
344 ; calls Mackenzie and Robin- 
son *' liars," 345 ; violates London 
Convention, 360 ; his practical 
dilemma, 361 ; meets Sir C. 
Warren, 377 ; supplies Transvaal 
with arms, 438 ; profits by raid, 
500 ; Mackenzie's open letter to, 
503-508 

Kuruman, 46, 48, 177, 179, 181, 



556 



INDEX 



184, 185, 187, 188, 192, 193, 197, 
203, 212, 213, 215, 217, 254, 388, 
389 

Kuruman, an African Pretender, 

137, 138, 142, 175 
Kyd, Rev. Dr, 9, 10 

Land - jobbers, their activity, 

methods, etc., 316, 321-324 
Lanyon, Sir Owen, 205, 206, 208, 
210, 211, 217, 218, 220, 222, 224, 
227, 239, 240 
Leeds Mercury^ The, 437 
Leonard, Mr J. W., Q.C., 362 
Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, 

439 

Livmgstone, David, 36, 37, 38, 43, 

44» 45» 59, 66, 67, 100 

Lloyd, Rev. E., 387, 388 

Lobengula, 137, 138, 142, 147, 148, 
175, 428 

Loch, Sir Henry, 435, 440, 444, 
448, 452, 453, 467 

London Chamber of Commerce, 
422, 426 

London Missionary Society (or 
Directors of), 7, 8, 13, 20, 21, 
42 ff., and education, 180, 181 ; 
propose native training school, 
181 ; changeful attitude of, 185, 
186, 190, 191, 193 ; its educa- 
tional opportunity, 196, 197 ; its 
minute on Mackenzie's services, 
305-306 ; its generous letter to 
Mackenzie, 371, 372 ; and owner- 
ship of Kuruman, 437, 447, 457 ; 
and Hankey, 469, 470, 471 

Loring, Mr Arthur H., 397, 401, 
406, 416, 417, 418, 421, 432 

Lome, Marquis of, 417, 418 

Lovedale, 132 

Lowe, Major Stanley, 220, 242, 
327, 329, 331, 340 

Macheng, 99, 107, III, II 8- II 9, 
122, 124 (invites British control 
in Bechuanaland, 1868), 127, 
129, 137-141, 165 

MACKENZIE, JOHN 

Chapter I. — Birth, 2 ; school, 2 ; 
printer's apprentice, 3 ; joins 
literary society, 4 ; religious 
awakening, 5 ; begins a diary, 
5 ; first communion, 6 ; motto, 
8 ; prayer life, 8, 22, 23, 24, 
25-27, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35; 



applications to London Mis- 
sionary Society, 8, 9, 10, 13, 
14, 20 ; appointed precentor, 
9, 10 ; addresses the young men 
of Elgin, 19 ; diary, 6-7, 8, 
10-14, 14-17, 18-19; letter, 
9-10 

Chapter II. — Student at Bedford, 
21 ; student habits, 26 ; self- 
discipline and ill-health, 32, 33 ; 
holiday trip, 34 ; finds his wife, 
34, 36 ; appointed to Central 
Africa, 36 ; studies at Edin- 
burgh, 37 ; ordained, 37 ; mar- 
ried, 38 ; sails for Africa, 38 ; 
his missionary ideal, 39, 40 ; 
Diary, 24-32, 32-34, 34-35; 
letters, 35, 36 

Chapter III. — Speech at Cape 
Town, 47 ; first journey, 48 ; 
describes waggon travelling, 50, 
51, 52 ; arrives at Beaufort, 53; 
Victoria West, 53 ; Hope Town, 
55; Kuruman, 53, 55; invited to 
a church at Beaufort, 49, 55 ; 
and the German mission, 58 ; 
in charge of Kuruman, 59 ; 
visits Orange Free State, 59 ; 
birth of first child, 59 ; starts 
for Zambesi, 59 ; arrives at 
Shoshong, 60 ; through the 
Great Desert, 61-63 ; describes 
disaster to Makololo mission- 
aries, 64-67 ; plans approved, 
68 ; second child born at Sho- 
shong, 68 ; arrival at Kuruman, 
69 ; discusses his future, 70 ; 
visits Free State, 71, 74; in- 
vitation to Hope Town, 71; 
work at Kuruman, 71, 74 ; ap- 
pointment to Shoshong, 71 ; 
discusses this and other plans, 
71-74 ; arrives at Shoshong, 74 ; 
uncertainty as to movements, 
74, 75, 77 ; on missionary 
policy in Bechuanaland, *]%', on 
Matabele Raid, 78-85 ; invited 
to visit Matabeleland, 85, 86; 
describes visit, 87-93 ; reception 
by Moselekatse, 87, 88, 89; 
describes the chief, 90 ; im- 
pressions of mission work, 91, 

92 ; decides not to settle there, 

93 ; death of his daughter, 94 ; 
returns to Shoshong, 95 ; 
letters, 50-51, 51-53, 53-55, 
56-57, 61-85, 87-93, 94-95 



INDEX 



557 



Chapter IV. — Would irrigate at 
Shoshong, 97 ; killing wolves, 
97, 98 ; begins work at Sho- 
shong, 100 ; describes native 
customs and beliefs, 101-103 '■> 
builds a house, 103, 104 ; his 
trust vindicated, 104-106; ex- 
tent of work, 100, 108; perse- 
cution by Sekhome, no ; visits 
native combatants, 114, 117; 
fired at, 117 ; receives his 
enemy, 119 ; begins church- 
building, 1 1 9- 12 1 ; his native 
nickname, 121, 122; the first 
discovery of gold in South 
Africa, 122-129; advises Ma- 
cheng as to European inrush, 
123-127 ; first touch of Imperial 
politics, 123-125; visits Trans- 
vaal, 126, 127 ; visits Kuruman, 
129 ; visits England, 130 ; 
deputation experiences, 130, 

131 ; writes his first book, 131, 

132 ; presentation, 132 ; sails 
for South Africa, 132 ; letters, 
101-102, 102-103, I07-IIS> 115- 
118, 120-121 

Chapter V. — Arrives in Cape 
Town, 133 ; tutor of native 
students, 133 ; reception at 
Shoshong, 135 ; an observation 
of, 136 ; narrow escape from 
bullet, 141 ; unique trust in, by 
rival chiefs, 142 ; aiding Khame 
as to a heathen custom, 143 ; 
addresses the tribe, 144, 145 ; 
at a conference on drink, 145- 
147 ; visits Matabeleland, 147 ; 
describes his visit, 148-149 ; his 
remarkable prophecy, 149, 150; 
narrow escape from bullets, 
154 ; work as tutor and preacher, 
^S^j 157; pecuniary circum- 
stances, 157, 158 ; invitation to 
Grahamstown, 158; reasons for 
•hesitation, 159; letters and 
memoranda, I34-I3S> I39-I4i> 
143-145, 146-147, 149. 

Chapter VI, — Relations to traders, 

160 ff. ; postmaster, 160; ex- 
ecutor for deceased traders, 

161 ; illustrations, 161-163 ; 
and "Fitzgerald," 164-165; 
his Sunday service for Euro- 
peans, 166, 167 ; his appear- 
ance, 166 ; judicial work among 
Europeans, 167-169 ; on British 



responsibilities in South Africa, 
169-173 ; appeals to High Com- 
missioner for Imperial exten- 
sion (1876), 173-177 ; leaves 
Shoshong, 177; letters, etc., 
161, 162, 163, 165, 167-169, 
169-173, 173-177. 

Chapter VII. — Chosen tutor of 
new Institution, 181, 182 ; his 
first class, 183 ; first students 
passed, 184 ; the site for 
the Institution, 184, 185 ; on 
the educational needs of the 
Institution, 192, 193 - 196 ; 
pastor of Kuruman church, 
197 ; variety of his labours, 
198, 199; illustrations of pastoral 
work, 199-202 ; his work as 
tutor, 202; letters, etc., 184, 
185-186, I9i-i93> 193-196, 199- 
202 

Chapter VIII. — Describes robbery 
of native landowners, 204-206 ; 
and industrial development, 
208 ; aroused by native dis- 
turbances, 211; warned, 212; 
refuses to ask Government aid, 
213 ; courageous act of, 214, 
215 ; on treatment of natives, 
217; beginning of administra- 
tive work, 220 ; official, 220 ; 
his new plan, 221-223 ; de- 
mands only justice, 222 ; in- 
vited and agrees to act officially, 
224 - 225 ; increase of his in- 
fluence, 226 ; letters, etc., 
205-206, 211, 215-216, 216- 
217, 224-225 

Chapter IX. — His plan for Bechu- 
analand, 227-231 ; meets Sir 
Bartle Frere, 231, who asks 
him to accept Commissioner- 
ship for South Bechuanaland, 
232 ; discussion of proposal, 
233 - 234, 234 - 238 ; how he 
could do double work, 237 ; 
urges permanent administra- 
tion, 240 ; protests against aban- 
donment, 242 ; expounds the 
Imperial relations to South 
Africa, 243-246 ; his territorial 
schemes, 245, 246; proposals for 
civil work disapproved by 
L. M. S., 247 ; describes their 
misapprehensions, 247-249 ; de- 
scribes the desertion of Bechu-' 
analand, 250; fights by letter 



558 



INDEX 



for Bechuanas, 254 ; describes 
his Kuruman plan, 254 ; view 
of Transvaal responsibility for 
disturbances, 255, 256 ; leaves 
for England and meets Sir H. 
Robinson, 256 ; letters and 
documents, 228-231, 233-234, 
234-238, 241, 243-246, 247-249, 
250, 254-255, 255-256 

Chapter X. — Arrival in England, 
257 ; the public attitude towards 
South Africa, 257-258 ; his first 
public address, 258-259 ; re- 
union with children, 259, 260 ; 
Elgin once more, 260 ; ordina- 
tion of his son, 260 ; on deputa- 
tion work, 261 J writes to Glad- 
stone, 261 ; letter to W. Dale, 
262-264 ; work in London, 264 ; 
among the editors, 265 ; on 
Mr Morley and Mr Courtney's 
attitudes, 266-267 ; "as the 
Choctaws," 266 ; at the 
Colonial Office, 268 ; attitude to 
Transvaal, 269 ; varied efforts, 
269-270 ; Christmas holiday, 
271 ; the arguments he met, 
271 ; appeal from Mankoroane, 
272 ; writes a pamphlet, 272 ; 
encouraged by Lord Derby, 
273 ; celebrates silver wedding, 
273 ; article in Nineteenth 
Century, 274-277 ; on " clear- 
out " policy, 277 ; letters 
and documents, etc., 259, 262- 
264, 266, 270, 272, 273, 274- 
278 

Chapter XI.— Y^xiie?, " Day Dawn 
in Dark Places," 279 ; prepar- 
ing for Transvaal delegates, 279, 
280 ; his alarm at their pro- 
posals, 281 ; explains their 
real aim to be supremacy, 
281-283 ; their attitude to 
missions, 283 ; gains support 
of Pall Mall Gazette and Spec- 
iator, 284 ; exposes Mr Kruger's 
"history," 284; his share in 
the Conference, 286 ; pro- 
poses plan for governing Bechu- 
analand, 289 ; is encouraged by 
Lord Derby, 290 ; addresses 
meeting at Mansion House, 
291 ; describes it, 292 ; de- 
scribes interview with Lord 
Derby and Mr Ashley, 
293 ; opinion of Frere, 294 ; 



speeches at Edinburgh, 295 ; 
article in Contemporary Review^ 
295-296 ; his policy supported 
by Sir H. Barkly and Sir Bartle 
Frere, 297 ; hesitatingly ac- 
cepted by Lord Derby, 297, 
300 ; opposes cession of terri- 
tory to overburdened Trans- 
vaal Government, 299 ; is 
offered Deputy - Commissioner- 
ship, 300 ; his letters of accept- 
ance, 301 - 303 ; his motives 
attacked, 303 ; congratulations, 
304 ; cordial minute of London 
Missionary Society, 305, 306 ; 
farewell breakfast, 306 ; visits 
Frere on his deathbed, 307, 308 ; 
sails for the Cape, 308 ; appear- 
ance and work described by Mr 
Stead, 309-311 ; letters and 
articles, 281-283, 285, 290, 292- 
294, 295-297, 301, 303, 305-306, 
307-308 
Chapter XII . — His spirit in new 
enterprise, 312 ; reception of 
his appointment at Cape Town, 
313; describes it, 314; recep- 
tion at Kimberley, 315; "sees 
both sides," 316 ; Transvaal 
expansion weakens the Trans- 
vaal, 319 ; meets difficulties 
among British at Kimberley, 
321, 322 ; describes land- 
hunger as his chief obstacle, 
323 ; and the intrigues of 
opponents, 324, 325 ; how he 
invaded a hostile republic, 325, 
326 ; successful negotiations 
with Mankoroane, 326 ; re- 
ception at Vryburg, 328 ; an- 
nounces Protectorate, 328 ; his 
negotiations with Stellalanders, 
329 ; appoints Van Niekerk 
as Assistant - Commissioner, 
331 ; his success, 331 ; arrives 
at Mafeking, 332 ; meets the 
Boer filibusters, 333 ; danger- 
ous trip to Zeerust, 334 ; com- 
pletes tour, 336 ; reaches Kuru- 
man, 336 ; Taungs, 336 ; 
friendly welcome at Vryburg, 
337; "the restorer of peace," 
338 ; Boers hoist British 
flag, 338 ; summoned to Cape 
Town, 339 ; his recall and its 
promoters, 340 ; went north 
with confidence of Robinson, 



INDEX 



55$ 



340 ; assured of his support, 
341 ; is warmly congratulated 
on Vryburg success, 341 ; and 
Goshen, 341 ; is repeatedly in- 
vited to visit Cape Town, 341 ; 
is hindered in raising police 
force, 342 ; is debarred from 
Cape Town visit, 343 ; told to 
do the impossible, 343 ; is told 
by Robinson of Kruger's Cape 
Town influence, 343 ; is at- 
tacked by Cape Ministers, 
344 ; is misreported by Mr 
Rhodes, 344 ; is further mis- 
reported by Mr Rhodes, 346 ; 
is supplanted by Mr Rhodes, 
346, 347 ; resigns, 347 ; ex- 
plains resignation to Dale, 348- 
349 ; letters, etc., 314-315, 315- 
316, 323-325, 339, 348-350 

Chapter XIIL—A.\id the Stella- 
landers and Mr Rhodes, 352, 
353, 354; his resignation ac- 
cepted, 356 ; describes his 
relation and work at Cape 
Town, 357-359; engaged to 
preach, 360 ; his recall de- 
manded by Transvaal, 361 ; 
addresses great meeting at 
Cape Town, 362 ; his work in 
arousing the Colony, 363 ; 
lectures to Dutch students at 
Stellenbosch, 363 ; publishes 
proposal for a South African 
representative Commission, 364 ; 
describes his activities, 365 ; 
addresses second great Cape 
Town meeting, 367 j describes 
to Dale causes of resignation, 
368 ; and failure of Cape 
Ministers, 369 ; explains to Mr 
Stead reason for opposition of 
Englishmen, 370 ; an offer from 
Mr Rhodes, 371 ; generous act 
of London Missionary Society, 
371-372 ; and Robinson, 373 ; 
letters, etc., 357-359, 363-364, 
365-366, 368-369, 370, 371, 371- 
372, 372, 373 

Chapter XIV. — Warren warned 
not to consult, 374 ; in- 
vited to join Warren's Expedi- 
tion, 375 ; report on his services 
by Sir Charles Warren, 376 ; 
attends conference with Presi- 
dent Kruger, 377 ; Mr Rhodes 
and the Stellaland petition 



in favour of, 378-380; at 
Kuruman, 380 ; his services in 
the expedition, 381 ; describes 
effect of expedition, 381, 382 ; 
at Mafeking, 383 ; threatened 
recall of, 384 ; letter to a child, 
385, 386; at Shoshong, 386; 
work for and with Khame, 
387-388 ; on premature close of 
expedition, 389, 390 ; hears of 
Warren's " progress " through 
Colony, 391, 392; at Cape 
Town, 392 ; describes dinner 
in his own house, 393 j asks for 
prayer, 394; and Mr Stead, 
394; letters, 381-383, 383-385, 
385-386, 387-388, 390-391, 
393, 394 

Chapter XV. — In England again, 
395 ; at the Colonial Office, 
396 ; and W. E. Forster, 396 ; 
his plan of campaign, 397 ; 
purpose and plan of book, 397, 
398 ; and Confederation, 399 ; 
the two first Imperial steps, 
399-400 ; and the South African 
Committee, 401 ; in Scotland, 
401 ; before Scottish Geogra- 
phical Society, 401 ; before 
Society of Arts, 402 ; before 
Anthropological Institute, 402 ; 
letters to Times^ 402 ; on 
Froude's Oceana^ 402-403 ; and 
Dr G. B. Clarke, 403 ; and 
proposed Royal Commission in 
South Africa, 404-405 ; and his 
friend Captain Kirby, 405, 406, 
407 ; on W. E. Forster, 406 ; 
invited to stand for Parliament, 
407 ; on his work, 408 ; visit 
to Leeds, 408 ; and Imperial 
Federation League, 409 ; at 
Portobello, 410 ; writes to Lord 
Knutsford, 410-412 ; finishes 
" Austral Africa" at Montrose, 
412 ; his habit of work, 412 ; 
scope of the book, 413-415; 
letters, 395-396, 396, 402, 402- 
403, 403-404, 404-405, 406-410 
(extracts), 410-412 

Chapter XVI. — Influence of his 
book, 416 ; on Lord Rosebery, 
416, 417 ; on High Commis- 
sionership, 417, 418; describes 
lecture before Imperial Federa- 
tion League, 418-420 ; and 
Lord Rosebery, 421-422 ; before 



56o 



INDEX 



London Chamber of Commerce, 
422-425 ; and Cape Town 
tactics, 425-426; on "Com- 
munion," 426; before British 
Association, 426, 427 ; at 
Portobello, 427 ; feeling his 
success, 427 ; beginnings of 
Chartered Company, 428 ; 
letter to Lord Salisbury, 429- 
431 ; the real question, 429 ; 
political significance of Bechu- 
analand, 430, 434 ; proposes 
Walvisch Bay route, 431 ; and 
South African Committee, 431- 
432 ; and proposal for Chartered 
Company, 432-435 ; hears from 
Lord Milner, 433-434; and 
from Mr Albert Grey, 435 ; 
article in Contemporary Review ^ 
436 ; varied work in England 
and breakdown of health, 436, 
437 ; hears of arming the 
Transvaal Boers, 437, 438 ; his 
" prophecy " rejected, 438 ; 
letters, etc., 416-418, 418-420, 
421-422, 422, 425-427 (ex- 
tracts), 429-43i» 431-432, 432 
Chapter X VII. — Various lectures, 
439} 440 ; invited to meet King 
of Belgium, 439, 440 ; his 
generous act towards Chartered 
Company, 440-441 ; writes to 
the Company on routes into 
Rhodesia, 441, 442 ; letter from 
Mr Albert Grey, 442 ; writes to 
Lord Knutsford about Walvisch 
Bay, 442 ; pleads for Imperial- 
ism in N. Bechuanaland, 443 ; 
writes to Mr Chamberlain 
thereon, 443-444 ; describes in- 
terview with Mr Chamberlain, 
445-446 ; offer of appointment 
by Missionary Society, 447-448 ; 
offers to serve Government in 
Bechuanaland, 449-452 ; offer 
declined, 452 ; his comments, 
453-456 ; "ready for Hankey," 
457 ; his work on reprint of 
Bechuana Bible, 457-459; his 
spirit, 459 ; letters and testi- 
monials, 460-462 ; letters, etc., 
440, 441-442, 443> 443-444 » 
445-456, 446-447, 447-448, 
449-452, 453-456,, 457, 458- 
459, 461-462; his report to 
London Missionary Society on 
his work from 1883 to 1891, 



appendix to chapter xvii,, 
462-468 
Chapter X VIII. — His task at 
Hankey, 471 ; learns Dutch, 

472 ; his devotion to new duties, 

473 ; accounts of his negotia- 
tions and industrial labours, 
474-478 ; enjoying a "day off," 
479 ; and his assistant, 479-480 ; 
efforts to obtain railway com- 
munication with Hankey, 480- 
481 ; and to obtain a "district 
survey," 481-483 ; description 
of his methods, 483-488 ; efforts 
in education, 488-491 ; marriage 
of his second daughter, 492 ; 
and death of his brother and 
sisters, 492-493 ; letters, 474, 
475-477, 477-478, 479, 480, 
481-483, 491, 492-493 

Chapter XIX. — His continued 
interest in "Imperialism" for 
native territories, 494 ; joy at 
Mr Chamberlain's appointment 
to Colonial Office, 494-495 ; 
protests against union of North 
Bechuanaland to Rhodesia, 
496-498 ; article in Contempor- 
ary Review on Chartered Com- 
pany's policy in Rhodesia, 498- 

502 ; and Transvaal problems, 

503 ff; his open letter to Pre- 
sident Kruger, 503-508 ; on the 
Dutch - English problem in 
Colony, 508-509 ; and Lord 
Milner, 510 ; on the Cape 
Colony war in South Bechuana- 
land, 510-514 ; invited to work 
for home journals, 5 14 ; article on 
the South Bechuanaland war in 
Contemporary Review^ 514-515 

Chapter XX. — And the Congrega- 
tional Union of South Africa, 516; 
his denominational services, 517 ; 
his address as chairman of the 
union, 517 ff; on the "colour ; 
question," 518-520 ; on stock 
stealing, 519, 520; his last 
messages to the Union, 521 ; as 
a preacher, 522 ; on Dutch- 
English relations, 523-524 ; on 
the British Empire, 525 ; on 
personal responsibility, 526 ; 
who is chief? 527-529 ; the next 
distinction, 530; extracts from 
addresses and sermons, 518- j 
520, 523-524, 524-527, 527-530 J 



INDEX 



561 



Chapter XXL — Varied elements 
of his character, 531-532; his 
self-sacrifice, 532 ; described by 
a friend, 533-534 ; his attitude 
to Mr Rhodes, 534-535 ; on Lord 
Rosmead's death, 536 ; and 
Lord Milner, 536 ; on his ill- 
ness, 540 5 health gives way, 
540 ; understands his danger, 
541; more work, 541-542; 
final stroke, goes to Kimberley 
and dies there, 542-543 ; funeral 
and memorial service, 543 ; wide 
appreciation of his life-work, 
544; "He told you so," 544- 
545 ; what remains ? 546-547 

Mackenzie, Mrs, 38, 48, 52, 69, 71, 
80, 81, 82, "106, 112, 153, 160, 
308, 314, 325, 328, 473, 479, 542 

Mackenzie, Mr James Donald, 307, 

543 
Mackenzie, Dr J. Eddie, 308, 314, 

542, 543 
M'Laren, Mr David, 13 
M'Niel, Rev. Niel, 5, 14 
Mafeking, 320, 332, 333, 343, 383, 

385, 425 

Makololo, 45, 56, 59, 61-67, 68, 70, 
72, 76 

Mankoroane, 209, 210, 252, 272 
(appeal from), 287, 288, 293, 
317* 323? 327 (welcomes Mac- 
kenzie) 

Marriages, mixed, 23 

Mashonaland, strategic value of, 
150, 176, 177 

Matabele, 45, 57, 78-85, 107, 123, 
I37» 147-151. 174, 175. 176, 428, 
433. 435. 436, 497, 499 

Mills, Sir Charles, 417, 418 

Mills, Rev. J. Grant, 439 

Milner, Mr Alfred (now Lord), 433, 
510, 536, 544 

Missionaries, treatment of, by Trans- 
vaal, 283 

Moffat, Rev. John S., 36, 44, 55, 
85, 86, 87-89,92, 93, 511 

Moftat, Rev. Robert, D.D., 38, 42, 
43, 46, 47, 48, 51. 53, 57, 58, 60, 
69, 70, 72, 74, 107, 179, 183, 186, 

193 

Moffat Institution, 181, 182, 184, 

185, 186, 187, 188, 190, 192, 

193, 195, 196 
Montsioa, 252, 253, 331, 332, 360, 

361, 362 
Montrose, 260, 279, 412 

2 



Morley, Mr John, 265, 266, 267, 

277, 282 
Moselekatse, 60, 78, 79, 83, 86, 87- 

93, 107, 122, 123, 128, 137, 150, 

151 
Mullens, Rev. Joseph, 97, 102, 120, 
180, 181, 185, 191 

Native Question, The, 519, 520 
Niekerk, J. G. van, 252, 254 ; meets 
Mackenzie, 328 ; reaches Vryburg, 
329 ; cross - questions Macken- 
zie, 330 ; offered assistant com- 
missionership, 331 ; cunning 
methods of, 331 ; "treasonable 
purposes of," 338 ; and Mr 
Rhodes, 353, 354, 355, 356, 360, 
361 ; accused of murder, 380, 

381, 383, 384 
Nineteenth Century^ The, 274-277 
Noble, Mr John, 249 
" Northward," 275 

Gates, Mr Charles G., 162, 163, 
254, 255, 303, 408, 479, 491, 492, 
502 

Pall Mall Gazette, The, 283, 284, 

294, 309, 365 
Parker, Dr Joseph, 426 
Philip, Rev. Dr, 42 
Philip, Rev. J. Frederick, 521 
Pittius Gey van, 252, 254, 353, 367 
Port Elizabeth, 391, 469, 470, 480, 

482, 488 
Portobello, 34, 36, 38, 130, 132, 

259, 271, 410, 437, 459 
Pretorius, President M. W., 57, 58 
Price, Rev. Roger, 38, 52, 53, 54, 

56, 64-67, 76, 85, 95, 100, lOI, 

108, III, 127 
Pro-Transvaalers, 257, 262, 263 

(their policy) ; attitude to native 

question, 266, 267, 276, 277 ; 

arguments of, 266, 270-271 

" Ra-Willie," native name for 

Mackenzie, 69 
Rawson, Sir Rawson, 418 
Reed, Rev. G. Cullen, 419, 479, 

542 
Rhodes, Mr Cecil, moves for a 
British , Resident in Bechuana- 
land, 287 ; succeeds Mackenzie, 
339; wishes to "eliminate 
Imperial factor," 340, 341 ; con- 
siders Mackenzie obstacle to 



N 



562 



INDEX 



peace, 344 ; relies on letters 
from Niekerk, 344 ; sends views 
about Stellaland from Kimberley, 
345 ; goes to Stellaland, 354 ; is 
opposed by loyalists, 352 ; goes to 
the enemy, 353 ; their bitterness 
against Mackenzie, 353 ; goes to 
Goshen, 354 ; but stays in Trans- 
vaal, 354 ; and Montsioa, 354 ; 
returns to Niekerk, 354 ; annuls 
Mackenzie's official acts and re- 
stores power to Niekerk, 354, 355 ; 
his appointment good if — , 357 ; 
would help Mackenzie, 371 ; 
Sir C. Warren and his Niekerk 
agreement, 375 ; attends conference 
with Mr Kruger, 377 ; his strange 
treatment of the Stellaland peti- 
tion, 378, 379; has "a fling," 
426 ; proposes Chartered Com- 
pany, 432 ; assures Mr Albert 
Grey, 433 ; receives charter, 435 ; 
and Zollverein, 445 ; his Im- 
perialism, 446 ; what he really 
means, 495 ; and the Imperial 
Government, 497, 509 ; his double 
parts, 501 ; and the Raid, 503 ; 
Mackenzie and, 535 
obinson, Sir H., first hears from 
Mackenzie, 254 ; first meets him, 
256, 281 ; unconvinced, 281 ; in 
London Conference, 285, 288 ; 
approves Mackenzie's plan, 290 ; 
recommends appointment of 
Mackenzie as his Deputy 
Commissioner, 300; Mackenzie's 
letter of acceptance to, 301 ; his 
fear of British taxpayer, 304 ; leaves 
for South Africa, 306 ; encourages 
Mackenzie, 312, 314; strange 
belief of, 317 ; fears of hoisting of 
flag in Stellaland, 339 ; recalls 
Mackenzie, 339 ; his former 
accord with Mackenzie, 340 ; is 
delighted with Mackenzie's suc- 
cess, 341 ; expects visit from 
Mackenzie, 342 ; receives news 
from Niekerk, 342 ; discourages 
visit by Mackenzie, 343 ; fights 
for Mackenzie, 344 ; deserts Mac- 
kenzie, 347 ; uses Mackenzie after 
resignation, 356 ; very kind, 359 ; 
resists Transvaal, 360 ; growing 
firmer, 366 ; proposes Warren 
expedition, 367 ; and missionaries, 
368, 369 ; suggests Warren avoid 
Mackenzie, 374, 375 ; advises 



against British advance beyond 
Molopo, 388 ; and High Com- 
missionership, 404, 408, 409, 
425 ; reappointment, 495 ; and 
Imperial Government in South 
Africa, 497 

Rodger, Mrs J. Campbell, 492 

Rosebery, Lord, 416, 417, 421, 
422 

Ross, Rev. James, 4, 5, 19, 23, 34, 
35, 36, 48, 75-77, 180, 216 

Rudd, Mr, 428, 432 

Salisbury, Lord, 429, 441 
Scanlen, Sir Thomas, 282, 287, 

290, 300, 313, 324, 348 
Schreiner, Mr T., 391 
Schulenborg, Rev. Mr, 60, 69, 72, 

73» 74, 77, 95, 99 
Scotsman, The, 292, 437 
Searle, W., 393, 424 
Sechele, 139-141, 179 
Sekhome, 78-85, 87, 99, 107, 108, 

116, 118, 119, 139, 151, 153, 

154 

Shaftesbury, Lord, 270, 291, 
292 

Sheilds, Mrs E. D., 485, 541 

Shepstone, Sir T., 137, 138 

Shippard, Sir Sidney, 451 

Shoshong, 60, 68, 69, 74, 78, 85, 
86, 95, 96, 107-118, 123, 128, 
129, 134, 135, 137, 139, 142, 
143, 145, 147, 151, 152, 155, 
160, 166, 168, 177, 182, 237, 

254, 386 
Smythe, Sir Leicester, 381 
South African Committee, 431, 432 

460, 461 
Southey, Hon. R., 291, 292 
Spectator, The, 282, 284, 406, 

535 
Spindler, Mr J., 471, 476, 477, 

480 
Sprigg, Sir J. Gordon, 357-358, 

429, 510, 567 
Stanley, Colonel, 395, 396 
Stead, Mr W. T., 283, 284, 285, 

309, 350, 369, 394, 402, 404 
Stellaland Republic (and Stella- 
landers), origin of, 320, 321 ; 
sinister flag of, 321 ; interest 
of, in Mackenzie, 315 ; invaded 
in a mule-waggon, 325 ; Pro- 
tectorate in, announced, 328 ; 
negotiations with, 329-331 ; 
authority over, vested in Volks 



INDEX 



563 



Committee, 336 ; propose to 
hoist British flag, 337 ; call 
Mackenzie "the restorer of 
peace," 338; people of, hoist 
British flag, 338 ; bitter against 
Mr Rhodes, 352, see British flag 
removed by Captain Bower, 354 ; 
plea for Mackenzie's return, 
355 ; still loyal, 355 ; handed over 
to Niekerk, 355, 356; who pro- 
poses annexation of to Trans- 
vaal, 361-362; petition from, 

364, 369 
Stellenbosch, 363 
Stewart, Rev. Dr, 133 
St Leger, Mr, 393 
Sykes, Rev. W., 38, 52, 55, 91, 92, 

149 

Territorial Scheme, Mac- 
kenzie's, 221-223, 229-230, 245- 
246, 276, 289, 296, 325, 434 

Terry, Colonel, 292 

Theal, Dr, 43, 44 

Thompson, Mr Joseph, 401 

Thompson, Rev. W., 38 

Thompson, Rev. R. Wardlaw, 371, 
390, 395» 448, 457, 462, 473, 474, 
540, 541 

Tidman, Rev. Dr Arthur, 51, 53, 
56, 61-67, 68, 69-71, 71-74, 75, 
77, 78-85,87-93, 107.115 

TimeSy The, 290, 402, 420, 426 

Transvaal (and Transvaal Govern- 
ment) and Sand River Conven- 
tion, 43, 48, 57 ; attitude to 
missionaries, 43, 44, 57, 58 ; 
threaten to attack Kuruman, 55, 
57 ; claims vast territory, 122, 
124, 127, 128 ; astute trick of, 
128 ; attempted migration from, 
173, 174; designs (1876) on 
Mashonaland,i75, 176 ; and Great 
Britain, 204 ; and paramountcy of 
chiefs, 209 ; citizens of, invade 
Bechuanaland, 251, 252, 259, 
272 ; their methods, 252, 253 ; 
effect of its Grondwet or Con- 
stitution, 253; retrocession of, 
250, 257, 258 ; and native affairs, 
263 ; breaking Pretoria Conven- 
tion, 263 ; sends deputation to 
England, 278 ff. ; objects of 
deputation, 279, 280, 281 (see 
Delegates) ; desire supremacy in 
South Africa, 285 ; treaty with, 
declined, 286 j convention with, 



defined, 286 ; desire Bechuana- 
land, 287, 296 ; recognised as 
South African Republic, 286 ; 
debt of, remitted, 286 ; and 
virtual slavery, 291 ; native 
policy, 295 ; pledged to good 
treatment of natives, 299 ; and to 
observe new boundaries, 299 ; 
injured by territorial expansion, 
312, 319; marauders from, 318; 
their methods, 318; embittered 
by British changefulness, 319; 
tolerates border depredations, 
335 ; cause of failure in Bechu- 
analand, 351 ; and Bechuana- 
land, 358 ; power of, in Bechu- 
analand and Cape Town, 359 ; 
annex Montsioa's territory, 360 ; 
resisted, 360; its attitude ex- 
plained, 360-361 ; to join Con- 
federation, 400 ; arms its burghers 
(1889), 438; and British South 
Africa Company's policy, 503 ; 
and Johannesburg, 503 ; war 
with Britain, 544 

Upington, Sir Thomas, 343, 345, 
351, 357, 367, 369 

ViLLiERS, Sir Henry de, 424 
Vryburg, 320, 327, 337, 352, 353, 
356, 357, 380, 382 

Walvisch Bay, 431, 441, 442 
Warren, Sir Charles, 192, 194, 208, 
240, 241, 242, 317, 318, 363, 
365, 367, 369, 370.; arrives in 
Cape Town, 374 ; his fitness for 
task, 374 ; asked to avoid 
Mackenzie, 374, 375 ; discoveries 
disagreeable, 375 ; invites Mac- 
kenzie to headquarters, 375 5 his 
official report on Mackenzie's 
services, 376 ; confers with 
President Kruger, 377 ; discovers 
and tests Stellaland petition, 379 ; 
and Mr Rhodes, 380-381, 383, 
384 ; at Vryburg, 380 ; and 
Niekerk trial, 380, 383, 384 ; and 
Mackenzie's appointment, 384 ; 
at Shoshong, 386 ; and Khame, 
387 ; turns southward, 388 ; pre- 
mature end of his expedition, 
389 ; quality of his work, 389, 
390 ; his enthusiastic reception 
in Colony, at Kimberley, e c. 



564 



INDEX 



391 ; especially Cape Town, 391 ; 

speaks for Mackenzie, 392, 408, 

424, 431 
Whitehouse,Rev. J. O., 199-202, 247 
Williamson, Rev. Alex., 5 
Wodehouse, Sir P. E., 123, 125, 

127, 407 
Wood, Tom, 104-106 



Wookey, Rev. A. J., 118, 212 
Wright, Rev. Dr William, 458 

Young, Mr J. S., 475. 476, 477 

Zambesi River, 45, 47, 67, 70, 
161, 243, 397, 407, 428, 429, 
433. 497 



TURNBULL AND SPEARS. PRINTERS, EDINBURGH. 



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